Money Down the Drain
?? Susan Rooks ?? The Grammar Goddess
Editor / Proofreader of business, nonfiction, and podcast content. ??BIZCATALYST 360° Columnist ????The Oxford Comma????Solopreneur??NOT A PODCASTER ??Dog Lover??Spunky Old Broad ??
OK, I know I'm a crank, but my crankiness has a purpose.
Right now I'm banging my head against a wall -- figuratively, although it may get literal -- because I just read the first three paragraphs of a post written by someone far smarter than I am in his field -- with more grammatical errors than I could count.
It breaks my heart to see all his smarts circling the drain -- and to me, it's also money down the drain.
Why do I say that? Because although we are all smart, we need to show a particular type of smart fairly quickly to most readers. We need to show that we can handle the English language (if that's what our audience expects) professionally. Otherwise, our readers may not think we're worth being hired to help them, even though we are!
So, here are three areas to check before you publish:
1. Homophones. You know, those pesky words that sound alike but mean something different and have different spellings. These are the ones that spellcheck will not help you with; all it can do is check your spelling. It cannot and will not check your usage.
The words I see most often confused are AFFECT / EFFECT, YOUR / YOU'RE, ITS / IT'S, EVERYDAY / EVERY DAY, THEIR / THERE / THEY'RE, and LOOSE / LOSE. There are others, but these seem to be the most common.
2. Run-on sentences. These are sentences that should have periods (full stops) somewhere in them. We are not allowed to write multiple full sentences (subject and predicate) and separate them only with commas.
3. Capital letters. Why do folks think every third word should be capitalized? Yes, if it's a proper noun (the name of something or someone), it should be. But if not, then we generally don't. Capital letters serve a purpose, but used indiscriminately, they make most information hard to grasp.
I realize it's unfair in some ways to judge a person by how he or she writes, but with blogs it's all we have.
Other posts you might enjoy:The Impotence of ProofreadingA Little Humor to End the Week
Three Reasons I Teach American Grammar
One Usage Error Everyone's Making
Lie, Lay, Lain -- These Words Are Such a Pain!A Four-Letter Word I Want You to Use!
Are You Using These 5 "Words" That Do Not Exist?
Program Management. Transforming Organizations. Leading Teams and Programs.
10 年Agree! Comprising of? And more such gems in posts that get my blood boiling. I am glad I am not the only one!
Independent Writer and Editor
10 年I hear you. Wish I had a nickel for every awe instead of aw I see on Facebook cute animal/baby posts. I have run across many professionals who are practically pathological in their incorrect spelling/grammar habits. I have declared one of those individuals incurable, as he/she continues to send out messy business correspondence despite this having been brought to their attention. I myself am finding that with age I am starting to make crazy mistakes on social media and in personal emails like writing the word know instead of no! It's a little scary!
Focused Foreign Language Learning (Learn the Language of Your Professional Playground)
10 年I love what you do. Although I try hard, I am sure I make more mistakes than I should. A couple of minutes ago, I received an e-mail from a potential supplier in Spain. It seemed to have been translated through an on-line translation service. Their website also has errors. I wanted to tell them that I would not want to work with them because it is obvious that quality is not important to them. Then I changed my mind. However, I will not work with them. Am I over reacting? How many people care any more about how well something is written?