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by Ashley Smith, Scribe Contributor
The English language is prone to idiosyncrasies in spelling and grammar, so it is no surprise that people make mistakes when writing. For example, have you ever found yourself confusing “you’re” with “your”? It’s okay to say yes. Everyone makes mistakes such as these, even professional writers.
Before we get into why we easily confuse certain words and how to stop perpetuating this habit, take a look at some of the most commonly confused words. Are you guilty of misusing any of these?
- you’re/your
- they’re/their/there
- it’s/its
- then/than
- to/too
Most of us don’t make these errors because we are ignorant of the rules or lack the intuitive ability to use the correct word. (However, if you don’t know the correct use for any of the words above, please consult your dictionary or some of our Facebook and Twitter tips from last week). More often the culprit is carelessness or hastiness. Between our busy lives and the myriad forms of written communication we use today—emails, blogs, tweets, etc.—it’s easy to overlook mistakes.
However, if you want people to recognize you as a professional and take your ideas seriously, it is important to stop perpetuating these bad writing habits.
Below are some tips to help you avoid making mistakes.
- Read what you’ve written before clicking Print, Send, Share, Post, Tweet, or whatever other method you have of publishing communications.
- Go an extra step and read what you’ve written out loud. This increases your chances of finding errors.
- Use grammar checkers. You can download grammar checker software online. Also, word processing programs such as WordPad and Microsoft Word will automatically check for correct grammar. Make sure this option is turned on.
- If possible, take a break after you’ve finished writing and come back to it later. You’re more likely to see a mistake that you hadn’t seen before once some time has passed.
- When it’s an important message, have someone else read your writing. A professional proofreader or editor is trained to check for mistakes and will guarantee your correspondence is clear, succinct and error free.
In short, give your writing just a little more time and attention. Carelessness is not the message you want to send with your business communication.
What tips can you share with other business writers for avoiding writing and grammatical mistakes?
by Ashley Smith, Scribe Contributor
The subject matter that shall be discussed in this article is about the importance of writing in a manner that allows you to make known all of the items you wish to express in only a few words.
Have I lost you yet? For those of you still scratching your heads over what that sentence means, here is a clear translation: This article discusses the importance of concise writing.
Welcome to our website! We hope you’ll take a look around, learn more about us, and hopefully find some helpful tips for improving your business communication.
What is it that we do? Put simply, we write for you. Chances are you’re brilliant at what you do, but you might lack the time, desire, or maybe even the skill to handle all of the writing that your business requires. That’s where we can help.
Whether you need us to proofread your everyday correspondence, rewrite your company manual, or draft new content for your website and marketing materials, our writing and editing professionals are standing by to help. Our team specializes in taking your best ideas and unique company message and crafting them into content that will help your business shine.
So, take a look at our Services, or any other parts of our site that interest you, and find out how we can help you take your business communication to the next level. We look forward to hearing from you soon!
It’s the second day of spring and we were happy to see the sun come out in Seattle! (So happy that I took off a little early and went to Pike Place Market.)
It’s a fitting time to remember the rules of capitalization for the seasons. Winter, spring, summer, and fall/autumn are all lowercased except when used to denote an issue of a publication (e.g., the Spring 2011 issue of a company newsletter or other publication).
Other exceptions would be when the word begins a sentence (such as “Winter” in the previous sentence) or is part of the title of a work (The Torrents of Spring by Ernst Hemingway).
Lowercase rules also apply for spring equinox and winter solstice.
Hope you are all enjoying the longer days and glimpses of sunshine after a long, cold winter. Happy spring!
The Scribe Source has completed our move back to Seattle—where our story first began. Seattle is where I first started the business, and we’ve maintained a strong client base here throughout our almost five years in Houston. We will continue to serve our clients in Texas and across the country through our online project management capabilities, but it will be great to connect locally with both longtime clients and new accounts.
We are thrilled about living and working in the Emerald City—thrilled about the entrepreneurial spirit and out-of-the-box thinking that pervade the business community here, about the vibrant non-profit sector making a difference regionally and around the world, and perhaps most of all, about not having to endure another Houston summer. It’s good to be home!
We’ve got lots of plans for our work here in Seattle, so check back often for news and updates. Additionally, we’ll be increasing our communications (which have been a bit stagnant during the last few months as we prepared for our move), so be sure to visit our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and if you sit down with someone who is a visionary and ask them what they do, that’s probably how many words you’ll get. Entrepreneurs and other visionaries are nothing else if not passionate, and given a listening ear, they can go into elaborate detail about the new frontiers and new worlds they envision.
But if you are communicating your organization’s vision using a thousand or more words, only the most patient will stay along for the ride. Simplifying your message and making it transferable is the key to your success.
One trillion dollars.
That’s how much buying power 15 million Hispanics living in the U.S. have, according to a new Hispanic marketing trends survey commissioned by Orci (via this article at Entrepreneur.com). Latinos currently make up more than 15 percent of the population and are predicted to number 50 million after the 2010 census, an increase of 42 percent since 2000.
So, how is your business connecting with this market?
An article I read today on Ragan.com asked corporate communicators, “What words inspire you?” The author invited readers to share which classic writers they liked to read when they needed inspiration for their own writing.
I thought about the works of great authors that inspired me, and a passage from Louis L’Amour’s The Walking Drum stuck out most in my mind:
“Why is business writing so awful?” Jason Fried, I ask this same question all the time.
At Scribe, we’re doing all we can to make the business world a better place to read, one document at a time. Jason Fried, founder of 37signals and co-author of Rework, is doing his part with this article at Inc.com:
What’s bad, boring, and barely read all over? Business writing. If you could taste words, most corporate websites, brochures, and sales materials would remind you of stale, soggy rice cakes: nearly calorie free, devoid of nutrition, and completely unsatisfying.
One of my favorite phrases in the business world is full-service solutions provider. A quick search on Google finds at least 47,000 companies using that one. That’s full-service generic. There’s more. Cost effective end-to-end solutions brings you about 95,000 results. Provider of value-added services nets you more than 600,000 matches. Exactly which services are sold as not adding value?
Who writes this stuff? Worse, who reads it and approves it? What does it say when tens of thousands of companies are saying the same things about themselves?
This article gets a loud hallelujah and amen from me. Read the whole thing, folks.
Generic business writing tells people you have generic ideas. Add some flavor and creativity to your writing, and your ideas will be noticed for how creative they really are.
So, check your business writing for any full-service, end-to-end, cost-effective blather. Then think about how to communicate your ideas in a way that taps into the unique attributes that distinguish you from the rest of the crowd. Add some of your personality to your writing and reinforce the message behind your brand.
And drop us a line if you need some of our special Scribe spice.
How can you get writer’s block if you aren’t even a writer?
In the information age, anybody’s job description can include some kind of writing. That means anybody can suffer from writer’s block or any other kind of creative block.
Deadline is approaching. You have to be cunning, creative, even brilliant. But after a half hour of staring at the screen, the ideas just aren’t coming. What can you do?