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.
“I write in vernacular in certain situations, but never formally. For instance, when using instant messenger type programs I’ll write “prolly” or “fixin’”.
Growing up in the south, “fixin’ to” was a way of life but I never saw “prolly” (or “praps”) until FR.
Or “irregardless of whether or not”. Repetitive and reduntant.
Must "whose" refer to a living person? If so, then how do you correctly express something like the following: "my car whose six cylinder engine is powerful, can go 0 to 60 in 15 seconds"?
I wonder if it makes a difference if no one knows anyway?
Don’t forget has/have. Or corps/corpse—this one is missed in all 57 states apparently.
Uh...”redundant”..
Crap.
Your points are well-made except that sometimes, for clarity, I think it’s necessary to use an apostrophe to pluralize. I think it’s clearer to the reader if it’s “Oakland A’s” rather than “Oakland As”.
Great article and thanks!
A side note about “communication skills” as a job requirement.
In my experience it has always been a euphemism for the skill of sucking up, and never the skill of communicating in English.
I rarely use those on my resume. :-)
You might consider offering the addressee of this letter a compliment for having sensibly chosen the long-term care that complements the existing benefits...assuming, of course, that it **is** a sensible choice, which in some cases it may not be.
I’m still waiting for a good explanation of “as” versus “like”
He apparently wanted to ensure he was right about half the time.
Thanks - great post.
I've never felt the need to make a distinction, and neither does this guy, and he is pretty "anal" grammar-wise.
http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/which.html
Don’t leave out
Republican/RINO/Conservative.
They’s used interchangeably but be very different words.
MSM types should of learnt the difference more earlier.
If/then is a correlative conjunction. You can usually omit the word “then.”
The “then” does perhaps refer to the passage of time after we make the assumption “if.”
http://www.fortunecity.com/bally/durrus/153/gramch28.html
Here’s my rule of thumb on “which” and “that”: Replace the “which” with a “that” and then remove the “that”
Word Perfect for DOS grammar checker used to call me “vague and pretentious” when I used “which” and “that” too often. I was never able to achieve Ernest Hemingway status until I removed most of them.
I like people who use RHINO. I always want to ask what the H is for.
Heart wrenching should be heart rending...as in torn.
Gut wrenching is right.
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