Posted on 09/28/2011 1:00:49 PM PDT by iowamark
Many brilliant people have some communication weak spots. Unfortunately, the reality is that written communication is a big part of business, and how you write reflects on you. Poor spelling and grammar can destroy a professional image in an instant.
Even if your job doesn't require much business writing, you'll still have emails to send and notes to write. And if you're looking for a job, your cover letters and resumes will likely mean the difference between getting the interview or not.
Bad grammar and spelling make a bad impression. Don't let yourself lose an opportunity over a simple spelling or grammar mistake.
Here are seven simple grammatical errors that I see consistently in emails, cover letters and resumes.
Tip: Make yourself a little card cheat sheet and keep it in your wallet for easy reference.
You're / Your
The apostrophe means it's a contraction of two words; "you're" is the short version of "you are" (the "a" is dropped), so if your sentence makes sense if you say "you are," then you're good to use you're. "Your" means it belongs to you, it's yours.
You're going to love your new job!
It's / Its
This one is confusing, because generally, in addition to being used in contractions, an apostrophe indicates ownership, as in "Dad's new car." But, "it's" is actually the short version of "it is" or "it has." "Its" with no apostrophe means belonging to it.
It's important to remember to bring your telephone and its extra battery.
They're / Their / There
"They're" is a contraction of "they are." "Their" means belonging to them. "There" refers to a place (notice that the word "here" is part of it, which is also a place – so if it says here and there, it's a place). There = a place
They're going to miss their teachers when they leave there.
Loose / Lose
These spellings really don't make much sense, so you just have to remember them. "Loose" is the opposite of tight, and rhymes with goose. "Lose" is the opposite of win, and rhymes with booze. (To show how unpredictable English is, compare another pair of words, "choose" and "chose," which are spelled the same except the initial sound, but pronounced differently. No wonder so many people get it wrong!)
I never thought I could lose so much weight; now my pants are all loose!
Lead / Led
Another common but glaring error. "Lead" means you're doing it in the present, and rhymes with deed. "Led" is the past tense of lead, and rhymes with sled. So you can "lead" your current organization, but you "led" the people in your previous job.
My goal is to lead this team to success, just as I led my past teams into winning award after award.
A lot / Alot / Allot
First the bad news: there is no such word as "alot." "A lot" refers to quantity, and "allot" means to distribute or parcel out.
There is a lot of confusion about this one, so I'm going to allot ten minutes to review these rules of grammar.
Between you and I
This one is widely misused, even by TV news anchors who should know better.
In English, we use a different pronoun depending on whether it's the subject or the object of the sentence: I/me, she/her, he/him, they/them. This becomes second nature for us and we rarely make mistakes with the glaring exception of when we have to choose between "you and I" or "you and me."
Grammar Girl does a far better job of explaining this than I, but suffice to say that "between you and I" is never correct, and although it is becoming more common, it's kind of like saying "him did a great job." It is glaringly incorrect.
The easy rule of thumb is to replace the "you and I" or "you and me" with either "we" or "us" and you'll quickly see which form is right. If "us" works, then use "you and me" and if "we" works, then use "you and I."
Between you and me (us), here are the secrets to how you and I (we) can learn to write better.
Master these common errors and you'll remove some of the mistakes and red flags that make you look like you have no idea how to speak.
Bwahahaha!
I don’t think you understood me.
I’m very familiar with begging the question or petitio principii. However, as I said, I can’t think of a single instance of begging the question that doesn’t also raise the question.
If I say Robert is an idiot because he’s stupid, that’s a classical example of begging the question. It also immediately raises the question as to why I would say that as I’ve offered no syllogistic reason to be believed. I’ve tried after reading your original response, and I’m hard put to formulate an expression that begs the question, yet does not raise a question. I’m suspecting that it’s not possible.
Lesbian divorce court?
That’s wonderful!
Shouldn’t the comma come after the subject instead?
My favorites are “This is hugh” and “ very series”.
I rfeckon it matters if you’re referrin’ to humblegunner or butthole. Self addresses seem less formal ... I don’t often speak to my body parts though. The parentage of someone, now that’s a different story: ‘God morning, barry bassturd, you sonofabitch’ needs a comma to differentiate don’tchaknow.
Actually, when you get down to it, country music offers some of the most interesting riffs and variations on the English language. It’s always been that way, considering the British folk roots of American country. It’s certainly superior, in my opinion, to the kitschy pretentiousness of Broadway style of lyric writing like, off the top of my head, “You don’t bring me flowers” or “You are the wind under my wings”. Say what?
When presented with some small inconsequential favor from a colleague at my last job, I would flap my wings to him and intone out of tune, “You are the wind under my wings”. OH, those were the days!
What they really should be saying is "I couldn't care less."
What about when you COULD care less?...
Weary and alone,
Savaged by the winds of time,
Burdoned with this state of mind,
Searching through a storm of stones, I am alone.
The melody takes you to the place the lyrics describe. If you write, you know what I mean, but if you don't write, you might not get how personal these lyrics can be. Hell, I raise cattle and hay (before the drought). I guess a cowboy can rhyme as good (or well) as a rapper.
Well, then we disagree. “Wind Beneath my Wings” is the epitome of pretentiousness to me, like, say, “Feelings”, or, better yet, “I (Who Have Nothing)” and “My Way”. Just the word “Wings” referring to oneself provokes the thoughts of insincerity, false loftiness, Thomas Kinkade, and so on (I’d better stop.)
But listen to Hal David’s lyrics to Bacharach’s tunes, or even Mick Jagger’s on his solo albums, who in my opinion is one of unappreciated lyricists. There are many others, and they are not on Broadway producing assembly line throw away word plays and cliched sentimental claptrap.
The kids in the cubicles of the Brill Building in the 60s wrote fresher lyrics than the Broadway hacks did then or now. Don’t Stephen Sondheim me!
Do wacka do, wacka do, so dang me!
Found this at Merriam-Webster
Definition of NAUSEOUS
1
: causing nausea or disgust : nauseating
2
: affected with nausea or disgust
— nau·seous·ly adverb
— nau·seous·ness noun
See nauseous defined for English-language learners »
See nauseous defined for kids »
Usage Discussion of NAUSEOUS
Those who insist that nauseous can properly be used only in sense 1 and that in sense 2 it is an error for nauseated are mistaken. Current evidence shows these facts: nauseous is most frequently used to mean physically affected with nausea, usually after a linking verb such as feel or become; figurative use is quite a bit less frequent. Use of nauseous in sense 1 is much more often figurative than literal, and this use appears to be losing ground to nauseating. Nauseated is used more widely than nauseous in sense 2.
As best as I can figure, a prune that never had a pit is pitted, and a prune that once had a pit that got taken out is unpitted.
Or, maybe its the same thing.
All plums start out with pits (seeds). (The fruit wouldn't develop unless the seed did.)
Pitted prunes are prunes that have had their pits removed.
I don't find "unpitted" in any of the online dictionaries. But it seems to be used to mean "not pitted" -- i.e., the pits have not been removed.
Surely “Wind Beneath My Wings” isn’t the sole alternative to “She Thinks My Tractor Is Sexy”. But hey, Trent Reznor is my favorite artist, and I can’t even quote half of his lyrics here so who am I to judge?
Yes, the apostrophe is allowed in that situation. I use this conversation as an example: "What did you get on your report card?" "A's and B's." But if the letters were B and C, you could omit the apostrophes!
A consideration re. your Oakland A's example is that the team does use the apostrophe. So the apostrophe is not only correctly used for written clarity, but it also conforms to the accepted usage for that particular proper noun.
The other situation where an apostrophe is correctly used to make a plural is when you're referring to plural numbers of particular words. "He used six and's, four but's, and two so's in that nightmarishly long sentence." The apostrophes are needed because he used the word "and" six times, not the word "ands."
If you look at different grammar and publishing texts, you'll see that different sources disagree on many points of usage. And usage changes over time. I'm old enough to remember when apostrophes were used to make plurals of acronyms: PC's, for example. Now we're supposed to write PCs.
In the really olden days when libraries had card catalogs, there were elaborate rules as to how acronyms were alphabetized and filed. That is now so far in the past that I can only remember that acronyms were separated into two categories: those which were pronounced as words (UNICEF, NASA, NATO, AIDS), and those which were pronounced as letters (USA, GPS, HTML, NAACP) -- and the two categories were filed differently.
The mailboxes were red, green, and brown -- OR -- The mailboxes were red, green and brown. (We have no clue how many there were ... or whether any of the mailboxes had more than one color. But we do know that only those three colors were used!)
Oh, there are many other possibilities for misspelling voilà! I've seen wallah, wahlah, wa la, waalaa, whala, whalaa, and whoala, as well as the ever-popular musical instrument. Yes, I started keeping a list three or four years ago.
The most recent find is voile. Mental picture of someone pulling a screening piece of fabric away to show the hidden object.
Border's going-out-of-business sale last month. And I had a coupon.
I used to have to use the CMOS occasionally at work. In retirement, I missed not having it around to consult.
This is the 2010 edition. I'd used the preceding three editions; haven't looked at this one much, so I don't know what they changed or added (probably much more on footnoting online sources).
Look at the many people on LinkedIn who are "principle" this or that. If you have "principal" in your job title, meaning you are up there, presumably a leader in your profession, should you not be expected to know the difference between principle and principal?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.