The Five Most Common Writing Mistakes – And How To Prevent Them

Writing is an important part of business life. You need to write letters and emails to business partners, clients and suppliers. You need to write a website to appeal to potential new customers on the internet. You might even need to write a script for a radio advert.
So you won’t be surprised to hear that getting your writing wrong can be severely damaging for your business’ prospects.
And unfortunately for business writers everywhere, there are five writing errors that even the best of us make from time to time.
1) Grocer’s Apostrophe’s
How many times have you walked down the street and seen a sign advertising “Apple’s – ?1 per lb”, or something similar?
Sign writers all over the world keep forgetting that plurals don’t need an apostrophe, but possessives do.
If you’re not sure whether or not you should use an apostrophe, ask yourself the following question. “Is the word I’m writing more than one of something, or a thing that owns another thing?”
If it’s more than one – for example; there are two cats – it doesn’t need an apostrophe. If it’s something that owns another thing – for example; the cat’s bowl – then it does.
And if it’s something owned by more than one thing – for example; the two cats’ bowls – the possessive apostrophe comes after the plural “S”.
2) Your Not Using You’re When You Should
A common mistake made by a great number of people is using your when they mean you’re, or vice versa.
And it all stems from the fact that we like to use contractions to appear friendly and informal, because you’re is a contraction of you are.
Luckily, this makes it easy to work out which you need to use. Simply say the phrase you’re writing in a formal way – you’ll then say “you are” in full, reminding yourself to use you’re and not your.
See? Writing’s easy when you know how!
3) Their Not Going to Like You Putting There They’re
In a similar vein to your and you’re, the word there has a few confusing homophones:
There – where something is; “the ball is over there”
Their – owned by someone; “that’s their ball”
They’re – the contraction of they are; “they’re playing with a ball”
Again, saying things in full and formally will help you work out when you’re using the contraction they’re, but the other two can cause you problems.
It’s best to think about whether you’re talking about people (their) or places (there). Or to hire someone to do your proof reading for you.
4) Knowing Your Tasty Deserts from Your Hot, Sandy Desserts
Homophones and homonyms can be a minefield for unwary writers. Word pairs like deserts and desserts, pairs and pears, or talk and torque all sound similar, or have similar spellings, but have completely different meanings.
And it’s hard to pick up on these using automatic software, because you’re spelling words correctly but using them in the wrong context.
So if you’re using a word that sounds or is spelt similarly to another word, it might be best to consult a dictionary before you hit print or publish.
5) Smoetimes You Dno’t Press the Right Key
Finally, every touch typer knows that you’re going to make mistakes somewhere down the line.
Typos can be spelt any way, but when combined with autocorrect functions, they can lead to sentences that are spelled well enough to fool a spellchecker, but that make no sense whatsoever for the reader.
And, unfortunately, there’s no quick fix to preventing typos.
But there is a way to solve them…
The Solution
The solution to all of these problems is simple. It’s proofreading.
Proper proofreading will ensure that any mistakes you make are identified and corrected before they make you look foolish in front of your customers.
So if you want to look professional and trustworthy, consider investing in the services of an experienced proofreader. It might just be the best money you ever spend.