Correction: I vs Me vs Myself: Grammar Guide
Corrected by Selen Ikbal Uslu · Content Quality Analyst and English Language Specialist
Selen Ikbal Uslu found something wrong, outdated, or unsupported on this page and proposed a fix. The publisher accepted the correction.
- Role
- Correction
- Publisher
- Evolang
- Topic
- Grammar Guide
- Status
- Accepted
- Date
- 19 July 2026
The exact change
"Reaching for myself when me feels too casual is one of the most common and most avoidable errors in business writing. The word is not a polish. It has a specific job, and using it outside that job announces uncertainty rather than care." Bryan Garner, Garner's Modern English Usage
Reaching for "myself" as a polished substitute for "me" is one of the most common errors in business writing. The word has a specific job as a reflexive or emphatic pronoun, and using it outside that job draws attention rather than adding polish.
Why this is better
Quote attributed to Bryan Garner / Garner's Modern English Usage is fabricated. Garner's actual documented position on this exact topic (he calls the error an "untriggered reflexive" and describes it
How this record is verified
- The contribution is tied to a real, identified contributor, not an anonymous byline.
- It counts only because the publisher, Evolang, accepted it. Self-claimed work earns nothing.
- It is recorded against a specific page and cannot be bought or edited after the fact.