Five writing pet peeves

Some of the things that bug me, in no particular order:

1. Confusion of similar words like "they're," "there," and "their," or "your" and "you're." Is it truly that difficult to distinguish between words? I am referring to native English speakers here, I understand how they could be very difficult for non-native speakers.

   The big pet peeve? Seeing people mistaking "then" and "than." Seeing a sentence like "this is so much better then that," makes me nuts.

2. Asserting what others feel. I hate reading a story in the news where the writer uses terms like "believes" or "feels" for other people -- i.e., "The candidate believes that..."If a figure in the story says they believe something, then quote them or make sure it's attributed properly -- but don't assert to your readers that a person "believes" this or that when there's no earthy way for a reporter to actually know what another person believes.

   You should never read "Dave Robbins believes that if we can just pass the Omnibus Pork Bill, no child will ever go hungry in the US again."

   Unfortunately, I see that kind of slop all the time. How does the reporter know what Robbins really believes? Answer: She doesn't -- it's sloppy writing at best, or a case of the reporter deliberately trying to convince the reader of something at worst.

3. Cramming too much into a sentence. "Calling from 15,000 feet above sea level in his private plane, in May 2006, Bob Smith, the Democratic representative from Ohio, remembered that when he took office in April 2000, he was shocked by how busy the average congressperson was on a daily basis."

   Okay -- if you need more than three commas in any given sentence, you probably need to take a look and see if one or more statements could stand on their own. I see this a lot when writers have a bunch of information they don't seem to know what to do with, or they're just not willing to revise and clean things up after the first pass.

   By the time the reader finishes the sentence, they won't remember how it started. This is particularly true, I think, for online content. People usually skim Web sites, rather than becoming deeply engrossed in the story or article as they might when reading something in bed or in a comfy chair. Give the readers short, concise material that's easy to digest.

4. Fluff words and phrases, like "both," "current," "future plans," "my personal opinion," and many others. It's fine to say "my opinion," because personal is implied -- "my personal opinion" is silly. If it's your opinion, then of course it's personal...

5. Two words: "Today announced" -- I see this in press releases all the time, and it makes my spine itch. It's doubly annoying when it gets carried over to news stories. For example, "Acme Labs today announced the release of Coyote Rocket Shoes..."

   What's wrong with "today announced"? It's bizarre usage. Do you say to your friends, "Bob and Sheila today invited me to a party," or "Bob and Sheila invited me to a party today"? It's strange, strange usage -- and I only see it propagated via press releases and "news" written off of press releases.

What's your pet peeve?