The suggestions below are part of the advanced course in clear and correct written language. I’ve compiled five of my pet peeves – verbal glitches that I change every time I find them in material I’m editing.

1. Comprise

The whole comprises the parts.

YES My spring garden comprises crocus, daffodils, and tulips.

YES A baseball team comprises nine players.

From the communications department of a Fortune 500 company came this typical error:

NO The committee is comprised of CEOs of major corporations.

The correct version is:

YES The committee comprises CEOs of major corporations.

How to get it right

When you start to write “is comprised of,” see if you can substitute “is composed of.” If you can, do – or else substitute comprises.

2. Beg the question

To beg the question is a technical term in rhetoric or logic in which the argument assumes that its own premise is true. The question in question is not a query but a premise.

Henry: Tulips are prettier than azaleas.

      Julia: Why do you say so?

      Henry: Because I like tulips better.

      Julia: That’s begging the question.

To beg the question does not mean to raise the question.

NO My azalea bushes will not thrive even with lots of care, which begs the question whether there’s something wrong with the soil.

How to get it right

Don’t use beg the question unless you are criticizing someone’s reasoning.

3. Very essential, vital, indispensable…

You already know, I hope, that very unique is redundant. But so all are sorts of other very expressions. Something that is essential can’t be more essential or less essential. (If it can, then essential is the wrong word. Maybe you mean important.)

How to get it right

Follow the advice widely attributed to Mark Twain (which Wikiquote contributors can’t find in his works, alas): “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

Yes, I slipped you some style advice when I was supposed to be correcting an error. Sue me. There are lots of instances in which the use of very is correct. There are none in which it is optimal. If you want to write very good, why not come up with a more precise word, such as excellent or splendid?

4. Me, myself, and I

Myself is correctly used in two senses:

• Reflexive: I picked myself a bouquet of tulips.
• Intensive: I planted the tulips myself.

In other instances, usually the word you want is me.

NO The company honored Thomas and myself.

NO The company honored Thomas and I.

YES The company honored Thomas and me.

Someone somewhere along the line seems to have convinced many folks that me is a bad word, so they try to substitute I or myself. The fact is that me is the object form and I is the subject form. If you are a native speaker of English, you haven’t confused them since you were three – except sometimes when me is accompanied by and.

How to get it right

Eliminate the other person(s). Would you say “The company honored I”? No. Would you say, “The company honored myself”? I hope not.

Just to be sure, try substituting himself or herself. “The company honored himself”? Not hardly. So no –self word is needed. You want “The company honored me” and therefore “The company honored Thomas and me.”

5. Impact

Some grammar snobs insist that impact should not be used as a verb. Actually, impact has been used as a verb as well as a noun for centuries. Until recently, the verb form meant to pack in (as in an impacted molar) or to collide with. My problem is with the more recent watering-down of the verb to mean affect.

YES The asteroid will impact Earth in three days.

NO We studied whether professional development impacts youth outcomes.

How to get it right

Use impact when you mean crash into or have an effect like being crashed into. If you can substitute affect, do. If you want a stronger word than affect, search for the word that more nearly conveys your meaning.

YES We studied whether professional development improves youth outcomes.

What’s your pet peeve? Go ahead, give me fodder for my next e-letter!