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.
So, are you saying that the Beatles, since they’ve already been mentioned, ought to have sung, instead of “You Can’t Do That”, “You Can’t Do Which”?
I often write in “Southern”, but always with proper punctuation. It can sometimes be quite the challenge to do so. It’ll give you more respect for how Samuel Clemmans was able to convey the venacular in his writings.
And for the record it’s y’all - not ya’ll or somethin’ else equally incorrect or ridiculous. The contraction is of “you all”.
AND what about “Then” and “Than”?
Effect and affect still get me. I choose another word if I can’t figure it out with my “cause and effect” type of thinking! Heh
You misspelled Obama.......
"Like" is what you do when you want to approve of a poster on Facebook. "As" is like when you copy them.
This will be a fun thread - ping for later
For me, it's a bad habit left-over of studying German where you capitalize nouns.
Sorry.
TS
Problem with a lot of these is spell check doesn’t do the job...error’s remain....Its like that old saying.....my tongue got in the way of my eye tooth and I couldn’t see what I was saying...
I never could diagram a sentence...it didn’t make cents to me.....:O)
that one was good for a couple of re-reads and a minute of laughs....
How about commas:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Judge said the lawyer was crazy.
or
The Judge, said the lawyer, was crazy.
A panda went into the bar and ordered a sandwich. He finished the sandwich, pulled out a gun and fired a shot into the ceiling then calmly strolled out.
When questioned he said.
“I am a Panda, look it up”.
Panda,
Native to China, eats shoots and leaves.
(Thanks Lynn Truss)
“I was taught that the use of “which” always come after a comma. Otherwise, use that.”
I think you meant to say “Otherwise, which use that.” ;)
That is certainly the rule I was taught and to which I still adhere, mostly, but pluralizing an acronym with an apostrophe is now a practice accepted by most editors, especially in technical writing. It can lead to confusion, though:
The contraction: "Shewt-fahr, boy, that thar GTO's a fast sumbitch, ain't she?"
The possessive: "Shewt-fahr, boy, that thar GTO's paint job ain't improved none by that primer."
The plural: "Shewt-fahr, boy, how many o' them GTO's you done stole?"
As you can see, concision is occasionally the enemy of precision, to the point where the actual semantic content of the subject phrase can be reduced in an effort to standardize. The alternative is that rote memorization of proper usage that used to be a function of primary education before condoms on bananas took precedence in the intellectual toolkit conferred on young students. One cannot imagine the pedagogy of the latter being administered by nuns with rulers, and the children are, in my humble estimation, the poorer for it.
.....my baby....
my older sister had to write 500 times, There is no such a word as ain’t....the family never let her forget it...if any of us kids said “ain’t” after that, dad would reply...there is no such a word as ain’t..that was back in the 40’s......grammer was teached...
Most of these don't say anything about how you speak. They involve spelling. Grammar too, but you can speak very well and still make these mistakes when you write.
Now, that's funny!
In my neck of the woods, I often hear “sposably” instead of “supposedly.”
There’s also, in these parts, an odd habit of saying things such as “He needs fed” or “It needs washed” instead of “He needs feeding” or “It needs to be washed.”
I also hear many pseudo-intellectuals say that something “begs the question” when they mean it “raises the question.”
So many small annoyances exist purely to vex me...
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