I am constantly reading and getting angry about the following
common writing mistakes I find all over the place—which are easy
to correct—so let’s all take a minute at the beginning of 2008
to make an effort to avoid them: Less versus Fewer If you can
count it, use fewer. If you can’t, use less. For example, you
should not write: “I have less candy bars than Jane.” It’s
fewer. Keep in mind that less can also be an adverb (“John is
less intelligent than Jane”), so it’s even more important to get
this right. I.e. versus e.g. These are overused anyway, but if
you’re going to do it, do it right. I.e. means “that is,” e.g.
means “for example.” Also, both always contain dots and should
pretty much always be surrounded by commas, e.g., well, that was
easy to show. Yeah, you know the word people always pronounce
“ex-edra”? Well, it’s pronounced the way it looks when you spell
it correctly. And it does have the space. Next time you say it
or use it, try it the right way. And sure, you can abbreviate it
as etc. Overuse