MY ĿƐSS♡И F♡Ŕ Ŧ♡DΛY. One of the things that rots my socks is the misuse of the English language. I’m no grammar zealot and I’ve been known to make my own mistakes (usually the result of poor proofreading), but at least Icareabout words. While it’s true that corporate communicators need to aim at colloquial language—we don’t want to be so colloquial that we assault our readers’ eyes with errors. Here are 25 of the most common ones you should watch out for: Spelling 1. Writing “then” when you mean “than.”The first is a description of time—“I wrote the sales letter andthenI wrote the advertisement”—while the other is used when making a comparison—“I am more sick of this picky clientthanyou are!” 2. Misspelling “bated breath.”If you writebaited breath,everyone will suspect fishing is your favorite hobby. The word should be spelledbated,which comes fromabated, meaningheld. 3. Using “accidently” instead of “accidentally.”There are quite a few words with -ally suffixes (“incidentally”), and these should not be confused with words having -ly suffixes (“independently”).Accidentlymakes it into some dictionaries but it’s regarded as a variant. It’s wise to avoid variants if you can, because some people will become more concerned about your spelling than what you’re selling. 4.Writing that something has “peaked your interest.”We’re not talking mountain climbing here. The correct word ispiqued. 5. Confusing “racked” with “wracked.” If you arerackedwith nerves, you are feeling as if you are being stretched on the torture device, the rack. Yourackyour brain when you try to write difficult stories.Wrack,on the other hand, has to do with ruinous accidents. With luck, this won’t apply to your writing, but it might just apply to the stock market, which has beenwrackedby recession. Word usage 6. Confusing “into” with “in to.”The wordintois a preposition (a linking word) that answers the question, where? “Donna walked into her office before noticing her CEO was sitting at her desk.” Note that the “where” needn’t always be a physical place—Donna could also “go into business” or “go into graduate school.” But, on those occasions whereinandtojust happen to end up beside each other, they must remain separate words. For example, “Peter walked in to see his supervisor.” 7. Misusing “literally.”If your boss said, “I literally felt like firing the entire department,” would you think she really meant that? No! She meant itmetaphorically.Small comfort, I know, but help her retain at least a few well-trained staff by stopping her from ever usingliterallyunless it’s the actual (literal) truth.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 13:34:56 +0000
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