A Common Solecism

I read a lot, more than I probably should. My insatiable thirst for knowledge inextricably holds me in its grasp and does not capitulate to any demands from either my mother or my girlfriend. But I am perfectly satisfied with my addiction and will remain true to my convictions.

One genre which I frequently peruse is vocabulary. You know, those books in the reference section of Barnes and Noble? By reading books on this topic, I have discovered just how egregiously and often the English language is misused. My goal today is for you, the reader, to never again make this common grammatical error (solecism).

Both… and: This pair should follow the law of correlative conjunctions. In other words, whatever part of speech follows both should also follow and. The following example is common: “Even the men in the class had to admit that both from the viewpoint of economics and history, the age-old restrictions are disappearing.”[i] Instead of “both from the viewpoint of economics and history,” it should be “from the viewpoint of both economics and history.”


[i] Theodore Bernstein, The Careful Writer p. 78

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