Mike Shea has a nice list of phrases to be avoided (as well as writing rules from Orwell and Struck & White) here. Among my pet peeves on his list are “on steriods,” “think outside the box,” and “talk offline.” (But I have no idea what “goat rope” refers to.)
Herewith, a few of my additions, culled from everyday readings of stuff on the Web:
- (anything) from hell Even Matt Groening is tired of this one
- may or may not Just say may!
- impact as a verb
- loose for lose Why is this the most common misspelling I see nowadays? Lazy typing?
- alot for a lot But this lamentable misspelling has been around for years
- peak or peek when the writer means pique
- pour when the writer means pore As in “I poured over the pages” – what did you pour – milk?
- “ping so-and-so,” when the speaker means “contact” or “call”
- “Well,…” at the beginning of a sentence Way overused by journalists and columnists for the last several years
