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Words that are Often Confused: CUPS for Editing Part 2

Think back to your language arts classes in high school. Do you remember using CUPS for editing? (Really, this should be proofreading instead of editing, but our teachers were working with the curriculum they had!) If you’re thinking, “CUPS? For editing? Wha—?” here’s a short explanation of how to use the acronym to proofread your writing.

Each letter stands for a different thing to check when you are proofreading:

C – Capitalization

U – Usage

P – Punctuation

S – Spelling

When you are first starting to use the CUPS checklist for proofreading, you make four passes through your writing, checking for issues with one of these things on each pass. As you get more practice proofreading, you can take fewer passes.

My next few posts will go over each of the letters in the CUPS editing strategy one by one.

This week we are on “U” for usage. This means checking your writing word choice, like looking for words that are often confused.

Let’s illustrate this with a proofreading exercise. Here’s the next paragraph about Aunt Maggie.

Aunt Maggie and me had spent a lot of hours in the kitchen together.  I remember how uninterested I was in learning how to really cook good; I just wanted to stir some water into a mix, toss it in the oven, and call it good. Now, though, I pore over cooking blogs, watch the Cooking Channel daily, and hoard cookbooks like they were gold. It was Maggie that gave me my love of cooking, but it looked like she was cooking a lot less meals in the kitchen now.

“I can’t see you and me cooking in this kitchen,” I said out loud to the empty room.

I laid the key on the scratched counter and walked straight into the area that served as a living room. There was the short hard couch that I remembered. I laid down on the couch with my feet on one arm and my head on the other, just like I had as a kid. My butt fit into the little hollow in the center, and I felt like I had laid here just yesterday.

So let's go through these paragraphs to look specifically for words that are often confused.

Me or I (and a little "myself")

The word I is the subject, and me is the object. But what if you don’t quite remember what subject and object mean? Try to take the other person out of the sentence and see how it sounds.

 

If we take out “Aunt Maggie,” then 

Aunt Maggie and me had spent a lot of hours in the kitchen together.

Becomes this:

❌me had spent a lot of hours in the kitchen

 

That just sounds wrong, doesn’t it? Now let’s turn it around.

I had spent a lot of hours in the kitchen.

Now we’ll add “Aunt Maggie” back in, and it becomes:

✔️Aunt Maggie and I had spent a lot of hours in the kitchen together.

 

Now let’s try the same thing with the sentence in the middle of the paragraph.

 

I can’t see you and me cooking in this kitchen… 

Take out the other person and you get this:

✔️I can’t see me cooking in this kitchen… 

 

Sounds ok, but not perfect right? That’s because when there’s no “Aunt Maggie and” in the sentence, it should really be “I can’t see myself cooking in this kitchen.” So, to verify, let’s check out what it would sound like with the word “I.”

❌I can’t see I cooking in this kitchen

No. Just…no. That sounds so weird! 

 

So the general rule is: if “myself” sounds right when it’s alone, then in a group use the word “me.”

Lay or Lie Down

Here’s the difference: lie is what you do on your own, and lay is what you do to something else.

✔️I lay the book on the table.

✔️I lie in bed trying to sleep.

 

Easy, right? Now let’s look at the past tense.

Lay ➡️ laid

Lie  ➡️ lay

 

What?!?!

 

So this line from the paragraph is correct:

✔️I laid the key on the scratched counter… 

But this one is wrong:

❌I laid down on the couch… 

It should be:

✔️I lay down on the couch… 

 

The sentence that ends the paragraph uses the past participle. (But not correctly!)

Lay ➡️ have laid

Lie  ➡️ have lain

 

So this sentence is wrong:

I felt like I had laid here just yesterday.

And this is the correct word choice:

✔️I felt like I had lain here just yesterday

Whew! Was that more complicated than you remember from when you were using CUPS for editing in school?

Don’t worry, the next few are simpler!

Pairs of words that are often confused:

Who or That

You use the word who for people and the word that for things.

 

So, since Aunt Maggie is a person, 

❌It was Maggie that gave me my love of cooking…

should be 

✔️It was Maggie who gave me my love of cooking…

Fewer or Less

If you can count a thing (one banana, two bananas, 100 bananas) the correct word choice is fewer

If you can’t count a thing (a little rice, some rice, a lot of rice) then you should choose less. So, since the word meal is a countable noun, the sentence at the end of the first paragraph should be:

 

✔️….it looked like she was cooking a lot fewer meals in the kitchen now.

Good or Well

Good is used for nouns (a good movie, a good haircut, a good day), and well is used for verbs (play tennis well, sing well, do anything well), so since cook is a verb, we need to correct this sentence:

❌I remember how uninterested I was in learning how to really cook good…

So it reads:

✔️I remember how uninterested I was in learning how to really cook well 

 

 

Yes! We’re finished!

And here is the final paragraph with the confusing words corrected:

Aunt Maggie and I had spent a lot of hours in the kitchen together.  I remember how uninterested I was in learning how to really cook well; I just wanted to stir some water into a mix, toss it in the oven, and call it good. Now, though, I pore over cooking blogs, watch the Cooking Channel daily, and hoard cookbooks like they were gold. It was Maggie who gave me my love of cooking, but it looked like she was cooking a lot fewer meals in the kitchen now.

“I can’t see you and me cooking in this kitchen,” I said out loud to the empty room.

I laid the key on the scratched counter and walked straight into the area that served as a living room. There was the short hard couch that I remembered. I lay down on the couch with my feet on one arm and my head on the other, just like I had as a kid. My butt fit into the little hollow in the center, and I felt like I had lain here just yesterday.

Does it sound better after we’ve gone over these few confusing words? I think so; there were a few spots that really stood out to my ear. 

Word choice affects readability, so proofreading usage in your writing is an important step in communicating effectively with your audience. 

(Of course, if you don’t have the time to proofread on your own, you can always send me an email here.)

 

If you want to check out the Chicago Manual of Style word usage quizzes, they have nine of them. The first one is here.

 

If you want more practice proofreading your own writing, check out my other posts on using the CUPS strategy for editing: 

capitalization

punctuation

and spelling.

 

5 Responses

  1. Gah! I always have to look up lay and lie. I’ve been a freelance editor and writer for 13 years and worked in a publishing house before that. There are some word usages that still get stuck in my head LOL! This is a wonderful post. I learn best when I see the words used in examples!

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Hi, I'm Tamara

I help authors, researchers, business people, students, and web marketers to polish their writing before they send it out into the world.

Every Monday, I send out tips on proofreading and editing to help you become a better writer.

Related Resources:

Click here for a great free download from AtCathleenElise.com that helps studentsespecially ESL studentswith the differences between who, whom, and that. 

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