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Columns

46 Ways to Embarass Yourself in Writing (Image credit: Getty Images)

Ever have the revelation that you've been using a certain word incorrectly? Are you haunted by e-mails you can't take back? See how you can stop making these blunders!

Other featured columns:

•	Weird Celeb Beauty Habits

•	12 Memory Tricks

•	In Defense of the Semicolon

Meet Our Columnists

Martha Brockenbrough

Martha Brockenbrough is the author of "Things That Make Us [Sic]," a guide to funny bad grammar. She is also the founder of SPOGG, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar.

Visit Martha's grammar page.

Tamim Ansary

Tamim is author of the critically acclaimed memoir "West of Kabul, East of New York" and 38 nonfiction books for children.

Visit Tamim's personal homepage.

Anu Garg

Anu Garg is the founder of Wordsmith.org, an online community of word lovers in 200 countries. He has authored three books on the origins of words.

Visit Wordsmith.org.

Columns Archive

Ever Wonder?

•	9 Monsters Rated: Which is Scariest?

•	Astrology: Serious Science or Strictly for Fun?

•	Can You Increase Your Willpower?

•	Could You be the Next John Grisham?

•	Does Bigfoot Exist?

•	How Old Is Too Old To Learn?

•	How to See a Ghost

•	The Mysteries of Amelia Earhart

•	The Secret Behind Secret Messages

•	What Really Causes Crop Circles?

•	Whatever Happened to the Metric System?

•	What Makes People Picky Eaters?

•	What's Your IQ?

•	Which Are Smarter, Cats or Dogs?

•	Why Are Stocks Worth Anything?

•	Why Do Knuckles Crack?

•	Why Do We Have to Get Old?

Science and Nature

•	10 Great Scientific Discoveries

•	3 Bugs You Should Love

•	Beyond Batman: Super Gross Superheroes and Villains

•	Family Feud: What Does it Mean that Obama and Cheney are Cousins?

•	Is Birth Order Destiny?

•	Is There Life After Oil?

•	Making Sense of Dreams

•	The 10 Greatest Inventions

•	The Strange Truth About Twins

•	What Your Handwriting Says About You

•	When All Else Fails: Dating Tips From the Animal Kingdom

Education and Learning

•	6 Things That Are Right With Schools

•	7 Things for Teens at the Library (Besides Books)

•	7 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do at the Library

•	12 Memory Tricks

•	12 Ways to Make the Most of Summer

•	A Better Nation Through Education

•	America's Best College

•	Are Teachers Overpaid?

•	Are Kids' Books Boring?

•	Back to School: 3 Resolutions for the 'Other New Year'

•	Blogs Invade Classrooms!

•	Can Leadership Be Learned?

•	"Cheaterpants!": Are Kids Today Worse Than Ever?

•	Classic Toys: Playthings with Staying Power

•	Computers in Schools: Are We There Yet?

•	Debate Secrets and Embarrassing Lessons

•	Diary of a College Freshman: Volume 1

•	Diary of a College Freshman: Volume 2

•	Do Better Schools Make a Better Nation?

•	Does Classical Music Make Kids Smarter?

•	Does Speed-Reading Really Work?

•	Emotional Intelligence: What Cartoons Can Teach

•	Finding a Killer Summer Job

•	Friends 101: Why Friends are Important, and How You Can Help Your Child Succeed

•	Homework: Too Much of a Good Thing?

•	How College Costs Could Lead to a Market Crash

•	How to Succeed at School: A Former Teacher Tells All

•	How Your Memory Works

•	Is it Time for Big Bird to Die?

•	Is Memorization Dead?

•	Is the Education Better at Boarding Schools?

•	Kids and After-School Time: Filling the Void

•	Kids Today: Dumb and Dumber?

•	Know It All: What Should Everyone Learn?

•	Learning for Fun

•	Lefties: Sinister or Special?

•	Literature: Why Read the Classics?

•	Love a Librarian

•	Majoring in Leadership

•	Many Kinds of Smart

•	Mirror, Mirror, What Should We Teach?

•	More Art, Better Schools

•	Myth of America's Failing Schools

•	No Adult Left Behind?

•	Power Learning: Can You Beef Up Your Brain?

•	Say So Long to Summer: Is More School Better School?

•	Should College Teach a Trade?

•	The Case for Liberal Arts

•	The Cold Facts

•	The Fastest Readers in History

•	The Physiology of Fear, or Why Everyone's a Little Chicken

•	The Reality of College Sports Scholarships

•	The Richest Colleges

•	The Skinny on School Lunches

•	The Strange Truth About Twins

•	The Student-Teacher Connection: A Vital Link to Learning

•	The Top 10 Richest Colleges

•	The Trouble with Testing

•	Tips from a Former Spelling Champion

•	Unlocking the Mysteries of Great Teaching

•	What Community Colleges Mean to Democracy

•	What Did You Learn in School Today? A Parents' Guide to Homework Help

•	What Effect Reading Has on Our Minds

•	What Is a Leader?

•	When Good Food Goes Bad

•	Who Can Test a Test?

•	Why Learn a Second Language?

•	Why the Library Rules in Summer

•	Why Tuition Keeps Soaring

Language

•	46 Ways to Embarrass Yourself in Writing

•	Are Old Languages Worth Saving?

•	Debate Greats: Political Zingers and How They Work

•	Does IM Make U Dum?

•	Errors That Aren't

•	Grammar Ethics

•	Grammar Lessons for Pop Stars

•	Grumpy Martha's Guide to Grammar and Usage

•	In Defense of the Cliché

•	In Defense of the Semicolon

•	National Grammar Day: Why You Should Care

•	On Words With Anu Garg: Reinvent, Reuse, Recycle

•	On Words With Anu Garg: Sherbert With No R-tificial Ingredients

•	Put Your Writing on a Diet

•	Verbs Gone Wild

•	Why You Should Keep a Journal

Society

•	2 Political Parties? Why Not 50?

•	9/11 Revisited: An Afghan American Perspective

•	An Ode to the Commode

•	Are Political Campaigns Getting Nastier?

•	Backup Presidents

•	Best and Worst Political Slogans

•	Can Technology Save Our Elections?

•	Christmas not for You? 4 Holiday Alternatives

•	Deconstructing Freedom

•	Entertainer-in-Chief?

•	Giving Away Millions: It's Only Human

•	Have Sports Records Become Unbreakable?

•	History's Great Peacemakers

•	How Do You Tell a Democrat from a Republican?

•	How Social Networking Sites Can Make You a Superhero

•	Is Your Boss an Ape?

•	Ladies First? Gender Disparity in the Classroom and the Workplace

•	Madam President: Women Have Ruled Other Countries -- Why Not the U.S.?

•	Not Your Founding Fathers' Democracy

•	September 11th and Beyond: What Do We Teach the Kids?

•	The Electoral College Exposed

•	What Does It Mean to Be Patriotic?

•	What Does it Mean to Be 'Presidential'?

•	What Would Sacagawea Do?

•	Who Needs Politicians?

•	Who Was the Greatest President?

•	Who's Got Nuclear Weapons?

•	Women Warriors We Love

•	Women Who Rule: 10 Firsts

Et Cetera

•	5 Achievements That Deserve Nobel Prizes but Don't Get Them ... Yet

•	14 Things You Can Learn at a Wedding

•	A Teen's Taxing Questions

•	Amusing Ourselves To Death

•	Are You Beautiful? Why Looks Matter

•	Are You Rude? 4 Accidental Goofs

•	Celebrity Germ Freaks

•	Conspiracy Theory: Who's Controlling History?

•	Daylight-Saving Time: What's the Point?

•	Do You Talk Funny?

•	Fashion: 1 Fib and 3 Truths

•	Great Inventions of the Next Fifty Years

•	High Maintenance: Wacky Celebrity Insurance Policies

•	History's Greatest Hoaxes (and How to Avoid Being Hornswoggled)

•	How Scared Should You Be?

•	How to Make $67 Billion a Year

•	How to Win at Trivia Games

•	Is This an Age of Invention?

•	I've Got Mail!

•	Land of the Weird: 8 Kooky Roadside Attractions

•	Meat on Legs: The Story of the Turkey

•	Notable Nitwits: A Roundup of World-Class Fools

•	The Best Mother's Day Gift Ever

•	The Biggest, Best, and Worst Gifts in History

•	The Funniest Jokes in History

•	The Greatest Mistakes of All Time

•	The History of Magic

•	The Pilgrims Watched Football (and Other Thanksgiving Myths)

•	The Secret to Happiness

•	The Secret Truth Behind Groundhog Day

•	The Trouble With Love (Stories)

•	The True Story of Santa

•	The Truth About UFOs

•	'Tis the Season to be Sickly

•	Urban Legends: Lies We Love to Tell

•	Weird Beauty Treatments for Celebrity Suckers

•	What Makes a Sport 'Olympic'?

•	What's in a Name? More Than You Think

•	Who's Afraid of Friday the 13th?

•	Why We Decorate Trees, and Other Christmas Questions

Coffee Break

Recharge your brain with a heady brew of Encarta's best quizzes, top-10 lists, Bill Nye the Science Guy, memorable quotes, and more--all in one place! Get a double shot of brainy fun.

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