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@ 2009-11-09 – 08:36:17
What is your most hated colloquialism?
Mine is the use of "of" when writing phrases such as "I would of," rather than "I would have," or "I would've."
How do people escape from school with a habit like that? (Don't answer that. I must be mad to even ask.)
Can we find a list of ten between us?
Kibitz
Munzly
Just taken a quick look at your most recent postings and didn't see anything apposite.
I used to write a Broad Norfolk dialect blog where everything was spelt as it was said. It's OK to do it deliberately or for comic effect. However, if somebody is writing something serious and spoils it with a colloquialism through sheer ignorance, that is when it becomes annoying.
I suppose "woulda" and "kinda" are more acceptable because there the words are merely compressed, whereas "would of" is a definite mistake.
la_spice
I think using "you're" where it should be "your" crops up a lot. That said I have to look twice when I come to use it 
Munzly
Yes! A good one. I have the same double-checking problem. 
la_spice
The same applies to "its" and "it's" 
DominicGee
People constantly mispell "a lot" as "alot" and "as well" as "aswell". Another one that is slightly more forgivable is mixing up "effect" and "affect" and "then" and "than".
When people use the phrase "begging the question" to mean "prompts the question" when that's not what it means at all.
Also, overuse, in my opinion, of commas, when a conjunction, or other method, would be just as sufficient, and, in fact, more desirable. It comes from a desire for their writing to sound exactly as they would say it, but that shows, in my opinion, a weakness in their written word.
Munzly
Good selection.
Extending your comment; excessive commas are often the result of misplaced phrases. In your example sentence "...that shows, in my opinion, a weakness..." would need less punctuation if written "...in my opinion that shows a weakness..." - obviously if it's the reporting of speech it would be different, but as written information the phrase order is best when optimised.
SeasideMan
Pro You misspelled misspell.
Munzly
How do you feel about "misspelt" as opposed to "misspelled?"
SeasideMan
Pro As far as I know both are equally acceptable, but I prefer "spelled".
DominicGee
Glad you spotted my deliberate mistake...
As I was once 'jumped on' for pointing out on this site , a lot of ladies here write loose in place of lose .
Or at used to , as I've noticed that a lot less recently .
I used to be a wicked misapostrophiser , and probably still am on occasions , which I blame my Steiner School education for .
Martin .
Munzly
I don't remember that, but maybe they thought you were referring to loose ladies. 
Is the offset punctuation as Steiner School habit?
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Hi There!
Methinks you'd loath my writing!
I often use would've or even woulda!
To me such terms are kinda friendly!
FYI - Escape from school. Some of us do this by choice!
Adam ... x