Ambrose Bierce - Write It Right. A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults

"The debris of battle lay around them." "The huckster went around, crying his wares." Around carries the concept of circularity.

A good and useful word, but used without meaning by shopkeepers; as, "A good article of vinegar," for a good vinegar.

"I do not know as he is living." This error is not very common among those who can write at all, but one sometimes sees it in high place.

"He is not as good as she." Say, not so good. In affirmative sentences the rule is different: He is as good as she.

"As for me, I am well." Say, as to me.

"The goods were sold at auction."

"She was shocked at his conduct." This very common solecism is without excuse.

"By diligence we attain our purpose." A purpose is accomplished; success is attained.

A needless word – as needless as "poetess."

A vocation is, literally, a calling; that is, a trade or profession. An avocation is something that calls one away from it. If I say that farming is some one's avocation I mean that he practises it, not regularly, but at odd times.

"By displaying a light the skipper avoided a collision." To avoid is to shun; the skipper could have avoided a collision only by getting out of the way.

Mere slang.

"Back of law is force."

"I feel badly." "He looks badly." The former sentence implies defective nerves of sensation, the latter, imperfect vision. Use the adjective.

"The balance of my time is given to recreation." In this sense balance is a commercial word, and relates to accounting.

A good enough word in its place, but its place is the dictionary. Say, dinner.

"Bar sinister." There is no such thing in heraldry as a bar sinister.

"I knew it was night, because it was dark." "He will not go, because he is ill."

The verb to bet forms its preterite regularly, as do wet, wed, knit, quit and others that are commonly misconjugated. It seems that we clip our short words more than we do our long.

"The body lay here, the head there." The body is the entire physical person ( as distinguished from the soul, or mind ) and the head is a part of it. As distinguished from head, trunk may include the limbs, but anatomically it is the torso only.

The word is slang; keep it out.

This word is frequently misplaced; as, "A large mob, both of men and women." Say, of both men and women.

"They are both alike." Say, they are alike. One of them could not be alike.

Pure slang, and singularly disagreeable.

Do not use it.

"He has no business to go there."

"Build a fire." "Build a canal." Even "build a tunnel" is not unknown, and probably if the wood-chuck is skilled in the American tongue he speaks of building a hole.

By many writers this word ( in the sense of except ) is regarded as a preposition, to be followed by the objective case: "All went but him." It is not a preposition and may take either the nominative or objective case, to agree with the subject or the object of the verb. All went but he. The natives killed all but him.

"I did not know but what he was an enemy." Omit what. If condemnation of this dreadful locution seem needless bear the matter in mind in your reading and you will soon be of a different opinion.

"A man by the name of Brown." Say, of the name. Better than either form is: a man named Brown.

"The bad weather is calculated to produce sickness." Calculated implies calculation, design.

"Can I go fishing?" "He can call on me if he wishes to."

In American politics, one is not a candidate for an office until formally named ( nominated ) for it by a convention, or otherwise, as provided by law or custom. So when a man who is moving Heaven and Earth to procure the nomination protests that he is "not a candidate" he tells the truth in order to deceive.

"I cannot but go." Say, I can but go.

"Men are capable of being flattered." Say, susceptible to flattery. "Capable of being refuted." Vulnerable to refutation. Unlike capacity, capability is not passive, but active. We are capable of doing, not of having something done to us.

"A great capacity for work." Capacity is receptive; ability, potential. A sponge has capacity for water; the hand, ability to squeeze it out.

A needless euphemism affected by undertakers.

The essence of casualty is accident, absence of design. Death and wounds in battle are produced otherwise, are expectable and expected, and, by the enemy, intentional.

"He had a good chance to succeed."

The whisker grows on the cheek, not the chin.

The word is popularly used in the Southern States only, and commonly has reference to men's manner toward women. Archaic, stilted and fantastic.

A soldier may be a citizen, but is not a civilian.

"I claim that he is elected." To claim is to assert ownership.

In this sense the word was once in general use in the United States, but is now seldom heard and life here is less insupportable.

In climbing one ascends.

"A coat of paint, or varnish." If we coat something we produce a coating, not a coat.

There can be none: a "collateral descendant" is not a descendant.

Give a man a title only if it belongs to him, and only while it belongs to him.

The word, in this sense, has something of the meaning of conspiracy, but there is no justification for it as a noun, in any sense.

This is not actually incorrect, but – well, it is a matter of taste.