Grammar: Among vs Between

I was reading The Spectrum Newspaper a few months ago and found that in the headline there was a common grammar mistake that definitely should have been caught with editing. For this week I decided to post the rule and hopefully remind those out there that there is a rule when using the words among and between. One would think that they are interchangeable, but in reality they are separate.

The word "Among" should be used when discussing or comparing three or more ob ejects.
An example would be:
"She had to choose among grape, cherry, and lime."
Most commonly it is misused to compare two objects.

On the other hand, the word "between" should be utilized when comparing any two objects. It will commonly be associated with words such as two, twice, and twin.
An example would be:
"We shuttled between New York and Washington DC."
Another more common sense rule to be paired with the word "between" is the fact that it should be followed by the word "and." Often times the a mistake will happen when the word "to" follows and this is wrong grammatically.
The follow example illustrates this:
"We shuttled between New York to Washington DC."
The only instance the word "to" should be used is when it is preceded by the word "from."

Just a good little note to remember when doing academic writing. It will add to authority of your work if you use correct grammar. For more info click here:)