Misused Words that Lessen Your Credibility

I was at the gym the other morning putting in an hour on my favorite elliptical, the one that's smack dab in front of the TV. The Today show was on, and they were doing a segment on retirement planning. The reporter was interviewing a financial expert. "So," she asked, "what are the things people need to be honing in on as they approach retirement?"

I grimace and think, "No, that's not right."

Then I recalled a conversation from a couple of years ago. I'd emailed my client a draft of the direct mail promotion I'd written for him. After he looked it over, he questioned me about the following sentence: "You'll collaborate with Alan and others in the room to home in on the answers." "Home in," he asked, "is that correct?"

As I'm sure you've concluded by now, hone is top on my list of commonly misused words. Here's a look at it and the other two terms that are on my list.

1. Hone—According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word hone, meaning "to sharpen," has been around since 1828. You can hone a knife, and you can hone your writing, public speaking, and marketing skills. But you can't hone in on anything. The correct word, the correct phrase, is home in. In the 19th century the metaphor referred to what homing pigeons do. By the early 20th century, the phrase came to refer also to what aircraft and missiles do.