Don’t you dare…in a formal paper
Here’s a list my teacher gave me back in high school. It’s compiled of things that should never be in a formal composition.
Don’t you dare…
- Use a contraction (don’t, couldn’t, etc.)
- Use “things” or “stuff”…be specific
- Use “nice” or “some” – too vague, over used
- Use “a lot” or worse – “alot”
- Use “bunch”
- Use slang
- Use “this, that, those, these” as pronouns, only use them as adjective before a noun or pronoun
- Put a comma before “because”
- Use “different than” – correct usage is “different from”
- Use “irregardless”- it’s a not real word, use regardless
- Use “off of”
- Use “plus” instead of “and”
- Write in passive voice when your sentence works in active voice.
- End a sentence with a preposition (to in, at, etc.)
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I agree with all of these except for “different from.” I consider myself a fairly literate person, and I was really surprised to read that I had been using “different from” incorrectly all these years! However, I looked it up on dictionary.com and, surely enough, I was not wrong. Here is the link:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/different
And here is the quote (originally from the Random House Unabridged Dictionary):
“Although it is frequently claimed that different should be followed only by from, not by than, in actual usage both words occur and have for at least 300 years. From is more common today in introducing a phrase, but than is also used: New York speech is different from (or than) that of Chicago. Than is used to introduce a clause: The stream followed a different course than the map showed. In sentences of this type, from is sometimes used instead of than; when it is, more words are necessary: a different course from the one the map showed. Regardless of the sentence construction, both from and than are standard after different in all varieties of spoken and written American English. In British English to frequently follows different: The early illustrations are very different to the later ones. The use of different in the sense “unusual” is well established in all but the most formal American English: The décor in the new restaurant is really different. ”
Bottom line: Either is correct. Teachers can sometimes be wrong