"To" vs. "Too"

I noticed an error in the second paragraph of the post "Factual queries". I've added a link that explains clearly the difference between "too", the adverb and "to", the preposition.

Here is the original post:

"I assume the copyeditor shouldn't spend to much time looking for factual errors. On the other hand, our editor sometimes recognizes errors of fact in my newsletter, for which I am very grateful!"

I was not familiar with "to" as an anaphor, so I've included that information.

To is an anaphor. Sorry! Anaphor is not commonly taught, but it’s an important use of to and one that’s often confused with too, because it can come at the end of a sentence. An anaphor is simply a word that stands in for another word or group of words.There is one type of anaphor that you’ve probably heard of: pronoun. A pronoun stands in for a noun or noun phrase. Well, pronoun is a member of the anaphor group. Yes, group: there are other words that can act as anaphors, and the particle to is one of them.

Here’s how it works:

First a phrase beginning with an infinitive appears, say:to get up early and catch the bus to the fish market

Then, there’s a reference back to it in which to stands for the entire phrase so it doesn’t all have to be repeated. In these cases, to usually ends the sentence.

Gillian plans to get up early and catch the bus to the fish market, but I certainly don’t plan to.

THIS IS NOT A DANGLING PREPOSITION! It can’t be, because it’s not a prepositional use of to!

But, because the to comes at the end of the sentence, where we are used to seeing too meaning “in addition,” we may unthinkingly substitute one for the other.

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

There are some words that are commonly misspelled that can feel like nails on a chalkboard to an editor. Now, when you see your friends use them, you can just point them to this cartoon image.


My favorite part has to be the explanation for the proper spelling of 'a lot'.

You don't write alittle, abunch, acanteloupe, aporkchop.

So, don't write alot.

common usage

I was reading the "Opus" comic strip in this Sunday's paper and a character mentioned that "thaw" and "unthaw" mean the same thing. Are there a lot of words like this and if there is one that is more commonly used, but the author uses the other, do you bother to query about it (because th meaning is essentially right, regardless of what people can easily recognize) or is that just being too anal retentive, even for a copyeditor?

Amazing and show titles

Hi, this is Moon Yun. I'm going under "Lotusflower" because I had to create a whole new account because for some reason I couldn't get back in with old account. As an entertainment reporter, I'm starting to do red carpet events and I like watching the awards show like the Golden Globe and the Oscars. I feel the actors are getting real lazy with their grammer, especially with the word "amazing." They've all started to use "amazing" as in "I'm doing amazing" or "We're doing amazingly." That just rings so false. Isn't it more appropriate to use amazing in the context of...Working with Steven Spielberg on the set of "War of the Worlds" was an amazing experience?

I tend to get confused sometimes with quotation marks around the title of a TV show or movie. I wrote something about "Lost's" Evangeline Lilly with the apostrophe and "s" inside the quotation marks even though it's not part of the title. Is it ever O.K. to italicize a TV or movie title when, say, writing a news release? My friend and I were having a discussion about that. He felt it was acceptable practice and made the news release look attractive but I felt the reporter would just think we were making stylistic error.

Thank you.