Eggcorn: tract vs. track

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On May 2, 2006, at 5:46 AM, David Bowie wrote:

> I've got a potential eggcorn, though it's probably already been noted
> somewhere: I just got final projects in from the students in my
> graduate
> class, and one of them consistently writes about "tracts" within the
> English major in her introduction.
>
> We have "tracks" in our English major here--creative writing, tech
> writing, literature, rhet/comp--but "tracts" makes sense, if one
> thinks
> of the definition of something relatively small and separate from
> other
> tracts in the area. (I'll try to find out if that's actually what she
> was thinking when she wrote it if i see her around.)

tract >> track is very common, and has been entered in the eggcorn
database:

   http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/514/track/

in the other direction (the one david bowie is talking about), we
have only one comment, citing "keep tract", but (as yet) no entry.

please do check with the student.

ron butters, don't you have a collection of these?

arnold

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