Uhh… keep your decomposing brother away from me!įeaturing plug-in circuit boards, we can strongly endorse this server’s flexibility and growth potential. Not only will this error damage the flow of your writing, it can also make it impossible for someone to understand what you’re trying to say.Ĭheck out these two examples from Tom Sant’s book Persuasive Business Proposals:Īfter rotting in the cellar for weeks, my brother brought up some oranges. The dangling participle may be the most egregious of the most common writing mistakes. While some people do use “effect” as a verb (“a strategy to effect a settlement”), they are usually lawyers, and you should therefore ignore them if you want to write like a human. “Affect” is a verb, as in “Your ability to communicate clearly will affect your income immensely.” “Effect” is a noun, as in “The effect of a parent’s low income on a child’s future is well documented.” By thinking in terms of “the effect,” you can usually sort out which is which, because you can’t stick a “the” in front of a verb. As with any of the other common mistakes people make when writing, it’s taking that moment to get it right that makes the difference. To this day I have to pause and mentally sort this one out in order to get it right. “Their” is a plural possessive pronoun, as in “their bags” or “their opinions.” Always do the “that’s ours!” test-are you talking about more than one person and something that they possess? If so, “their” will get you there. “There” is used many ways, including as a reference to a place (“let’s go there”) or as a pronoun (“there is no hope”). Make sure to watch for it when you proofread.
This one seems to trip up everyone occasionally, often as a pure typo. If that sounds goofy, “its” is likely the correct choice.
“It’s” is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” “Its” is a possessive pronoun, as in “this blog has lost its mojo.” Here’s an easy rule of thumb-repeat your sentence out loud using “it is” instead. It’s also easily avoided by thinking through what you’re trying to say. Give us 30 minutes and we’ll transform how you sell online. “Your” is a possessive pronoun, as in “your car” or “your blog.” “You’re” is a contraction for “you are,” as in “you’re screwing up your writing by using your when you really mean you are.” All it takes to avoid this error is to take a second and think about what you’re trying to say. This one drives me insane, and it’s become extremely common among bloggers. Here are five mistakes to avoid when blogging and writing web copy. While we all hope what we have to say is more important than some silly grammatical error, the truth is some people will not subscribe or link to your blog if you make dumb mistakes when you write, and buying from you will be out of the question. Both bloggers and copywriters routinely end sentences with prepositions, dangle a modifier in a purely technical sense, or make liberal use of the ellipsis when an EM dash is the correct choice-all in order to write in the way people actually speak.īut there are other mistakes that can detract from your credibility. One thing blogging and good copywriting share is a conversational style, and that means it’s fine to fracture the occasional rule of proper grammar in order to communicate effectively.
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