Talk:Common English usage misconceptions

Guidelines
Since this is a new article, some restrictions might be useful. But, there's plenty of room for expansion, so no need to be overly protective I think. Since this could easily degrade into entries about disputed usage, I propose (as it stands now) that all entries must:


 * (1) show that the misconception is widespread
 * (2) focus on the misconception, not any dispute on usage
 * (3) be supported by at least one reliable source that outlines both 1 and 2 above

--Airborne84 (talk) 03:45, 28 May 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 0x0077BE (talk • contribs)

Two sentences after a period "misconception"
Is this a "misconception"? The text in the entry indicates that it is an old convention that is now disfavored by "most" style guides, with some exceptions (i.e. monospace fonts).

I would add that it is mostly irrelevant since much of what we write is rendered as HTML and that standard ignores whitespace. I just placed two periods after that sentence and it will look exactly the same. I just placed ten spaces after that period. And forty after the last one.

BTW, I edited the entry to explain this but it was dismissed as "irrelevant". Hardly so, since all that arguing and getting up on a high horse re one vs two spaces is moot for html communication.

This article (https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/two-spaces-after-a-period?page=1) by one of the authors cited in the refs for this entry has the full story, including the part about html. At no point does that author declare that it is a "misconception" Do the other cites? I don't know and don't have access to them, but under NPOV we editors don't get to call something a "misconception" unless there's some source for that. Is thare? Mr. Swordfish (talk) 23:20, 18 July 2022 (UTC)


 * Looking into this farther, this entry contradicts the material at Sentence_spacing. I'm going to remove it since it is not established as a "misconception".  Perhaps it can be re-added in some form, but it seems best to remove it until we can resolve the difference between it and the parent article. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 15:57, 21 July 2022 (UTC)

Indenting paragraphs
The entry here claims that indenting paragraphs is a "misconception". That seems to contradict the material at Paragraph which implies that some styleguides say you should and some say it is unnecessary.

How do we resolve this, and is there actually any WP:RS that states that this is a misconception? Mr. Swordfish (talk) 16:07, 21 July 2022 (UTC)


 * It's been a week and nobody has replied. I'm going to remove this entry.  I don't recall the last time I read something on the internet that used paragraph indentation, so I can't imagine that anyone still thinks it's a mandatory convention. Fiction still seems to use it, at least with printed books.
 * The topic article discusses various conventions for formatting paragraphs and basically says: paragraph indentation is acceptable but non-indentation is the preferred format. The statement: Every paragraph must be indented is certainly false, but it's not at all clear that it is a common misconception. Unless someone shows up with a cite that establishes it as a common and current misconception the entry remains unsourced and should be removed.


 * The cite for this item is available at https://p303.zlibcdn.com/dtoken/161473d224e15c43f08a9577d1cf07e5, a brief perusal fails to establish the claim that this is a common misconception. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 13:58, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

It's not wrong to X or Y because...?
I see a lot of terms like "there's no rule against" or "it's not wrong", but is that because there are no rules/it can't be wrong? Or are there rules? What are these rules? Is there an official list or something? 2601:408:C402:7026:4D97:92C6:FB4B:8460 (talk) 22:04, 10 December 2023 (UTC)