Instant Quiz

Can you improve the sentence below? Scroll to the bottom of today’s post for the answer.    

We were surprised by the amount of people who signed up for the workshop.

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Back in 1819, the British poet John Keats wrote of instead of have in a letter. Go to this link (Full text of “The Letters Of John Keats Volume Ii”) to read the letter: “Had I known of your illness I should not of written in such sorry phrase in my first letter.”

It’s the same mistake students make today. Here’s the correct version: “Had I known of your illness I should not of written in such sorry phrase in my first letter.:

There’s a useful lesson here: don’t assume that every mistake is a sign that language skills are deteriorating. Writers have always made mistakes – and always will.

There’s one difference, however: nowadays we have superb grammar checkers and spellcheckers. There’s no excuse for careless writing mistakes anymore.

Poet John Keats by J. Severn

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