I don’t think I’m a grammar bore or a stickler for the so-called rules of English language. I’m quite happy to start sentences with ‘and’ or ‘but’, and I’ve been known to split an infinitive with the best of them.
That said, I think that blogging is better if you write well.
With any kind of writing, words and sentences are your tools. The more you understand how to get the best out of those tools, the better the end result will be. If your use of language is clumsy, careless or confusing, you’re asking the reader to work that bit harder to understand your posts – and ultimately that’s going to put some people off.
So here are 10 common mistakes that might put people off reading your blog:
Confusing You’re and Your: This is a really common mistake and easily avoided. Your means something belongs to someone or something – it’s your birthday. You’re is a shortened version of you are – you’re a blogger.
Using could of and would of: When we speak out loud, we often run words together, and miss out sounds. So phrases like ‘could have’ and ‘should have’ are often pronounced as ‘could’ve’ and ‘should’ve’ which leads to confusion when you’re writing. Regardless of your accent, when writing, always use ‘could have’ and ‘should have’.
Abusing the word ‘literally’: Literally has a very specific meaning in the English language – it means something is an actual truth. So you’re highly unlikely to be ‘literally hopping mad’ unless you ACTUALLY were jumping up and down like a two-year-old.
Confusing their, they’re and there: Again these are three distinct words with distinct meanings. There usually refers to a place (“There is the mistake”) while their is a possessive pronoun (“It was their bag”) and they’re is a contraction of they are (“They’re too big”)
Confusing affect and effect: Another similar pair of words, but they are used in different ways. Effect is a noun and usually describes the result of something: the effect of the policy was widespread poverty. Affect, meanwhile, is a verb, and usually describes something being altered by something else – the policy affected people’s income. Basically if you can put ‘the’ in front of it, use ‘effect’. Otherwise, use ‘affect’.
Apostrophes. There are two places where you always need an apostrophe – first, when you join two words together and omit letters, such as it + is = it’s or there + is = there’s. The second is when something belongs to something else, such as ‘the blogger’s blog’. Things that don’t need apostrophes: plurals (two dog’s), acronyms (DVD’s) and years (1970’s).
Confusing to and too: Too means ‘also’ or ‘excessively’ – She wasn’t just a freelancer, she was a layabout, too. He was too rich for me. Everything else is ‘to’ – a preposition referring to place.
Confusing lose and loose: These words mean completely different things – lose is related to ‘loss’ while ‘loose’ is an adjective that is the opposite of tight. Remember – if your jeans are loose, you might lose your dignity.
Abusing unique: If you ever describe something as ‘completely unique’ or ‘virtually unique’ then the grammar police are fully justified in banging down your door and slapping you around the head with a dictionary. It either is unique or it isn’t. Anything else is unnecessary.
Text speak: I’m not even going to justify this one. I can just about excuse ‘lol’ in a 140 character message but in a blog post, it just makes you look like a middle-aged person trying to be down with the kids. Don’t do it. Unless you’re under 16 in which case, feel free.
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
And never, ever use its’!
I can see where homophone confusion comes from, and of course a spellchecker doesn’t pick up on it, but it’s always worth a reread of material before posting to check for these things.
“its’”? Goodness, that’s awful.
Homophones are easily confused by definition, and we’ve all done it – I just think sometimes it’s more than a typo, it’s that someone genuinely has the definitions confused. Lose and loose is one of the most common that I see.
Great tips.
I’d add that it doesn’t look good if you use TOO many words in UPPER CASE LETTERS. If you REALLY want to emphasise what you’re saying, FIND OTHER WAYS OF DOING IT. It’s EXHAUSTING to read, and you can probably get the point across in another way IF YOU TRY.
Yes. I like to mix up my annoying fonts by combining upper case with italic and underlined
I don’t think that I make the mistakes that you have listed here, (although I know a few blogs posts where I have read the wrong word being used and I have hurried back to correct them!) but I think a far worse crime is where people use “text speak” and talk as if they are a 12 year old girl…
LOL. U R SO RT.
I don’t think that I make the mistakes that you have listed here, (although I know a few blogs posts where I have read the wrong word being used and I have hurried back to correct them!) but I think a far worse crime is where people use “text speak” and talk as if they are a 12 year old girl…
Personally, I hate when people repeat themselves. Don’t you?
*snigger*
What about subject and verb agreement? Is it really that difficult to work out whether to use ‘is’ or ‘are’?
It’s when I see whopping big mistakes in the papers that I get a bee in my bonnet (I mean YOU Evening Standard). I admit to overusing hyphens and dashes when I’m writing – I can’t get enough of them!
The Daily Mail appears to have given up on employing subs entirely.
very helpful. BOOKMARKED
Great post! I’d like to add another – ‘alot’. I see a lot of people writing that these days, and it drives me mad!
Oh, and ‘very’. I saw a tweet from someone (Charles Arthur, maybe?) that said he thinks people should substitute each instance of ‘very’ in their copy with an expletive – so that the subs will edit them all out. I’m sure there are reasons to use the word, but people do use it far too often, reducing the impact of the word, and using it in cases where it doesn’t apply. Something can’t be “very dead”, it’s either dead or alive.
alot – pfft. It’s not even a word.
Pedant:
“Confusing their, they’re and there: Again these are three distinct words with distinct meanings. There usually refers to a place (“There is the mistake”) while there is a possessive pronoun (“It was their bag”) and they’re is a contraction of they are (“They’re too big”)”
You’ve done it yourself, and written “there” instead of “their”. “There” is definitely not a possessive pronoun ….
Sorry, no idea what you’re on about.
*cough*
Yay! Another grammar nerd… I mean, enthusiast! Would of and could of, instead of would have and could have, is my absolute pet hate. I hold my hands up to a bit of hyphen, dash and exclamation point overuse too (*high five Make Do Mum*) but that comes from many years working for women’s true-life magazines. Soz, LOL, innit?
AND I love started sentences with ‘And’ just to be controversial. Hey, grammar nerds can be wild and crazy too, you know!!!!! (see what I mean about the exclamation point overuse?)
PS: While I’m on a roll, I also hate it when people pronounce the plural ‘women’ the exact same way as the singular ‘woman’. It’s pronounced ‘wimmin’ people!
OK, I’m done now.
Mummy,
When writing for TV news anchors we spell words phonetically so that that they don’t make fools of themselves on air. Where I live we have a river named Scioto. New anchors tend to pronounce it
“Ski-O-toe” when the actual pronunciation is “cy-o-ta” When I’m writing for a travel blog I use this method to help readers so that they can pronounce foreign words correctly.
However, I must agree with you that people should be able to know the difference when pronouncing women and woman.
Oops!
In that last sentence I made a mistake that is embarrassing! ;(
I meant to say; “people should know” rather than “people should be able to know”.
Of course I meant ’starting sentences’ not ’started sentences’. A bloody typo in my rant about illiteracy. Typical.
Another one that drives me crazy because it was pounded into my head in writing classes is mixing “over” and “more than”. You see it in almost every blog, and especially in advertising. “Over 300 models to choose from” is incorrect. Over indicates a physical relationship, not a quantity relationship. “More than 300 models to choose from” is the way to go.
Great post. I totally agree with you warnings about sound-alikes and those dangerous apostrophes. Let me add that “myself” is also often misused. These simple mistakes make you difficult to understand and look stupid. Stop and think. More at http://www.stickycommunication.ca/2010/07/operation-bad-grammar-the-biggest-easiest-targets/
I also think having a standardized style is important, particularly if you write for an audience that has some specialized jargon and info needs (for example, I write a food blog and, over time, have standardized how I present measurements). I think having one avoids confusion, helps readers, and makes you look more professional. I also rely on AP Style for general usage and spelling questions.
I use the Guardian Style Guide which often makes you remember which word to use by being funny about it (look up Goth/goth).
I’d also recommend Bill Bryson’s ‘Troublesome Words’ if you want a printed guide to British English.
It’s funny how that’s all less of an issue for us foreigners. We have to learn it all by heart, so we don’t get confused by childhood ideas which can linger with native speakers.
(I just put that really badly, but hey I have the excuse that I’m a foreigner at least.)
Not everyone is highly literate but what they say may be really well worth hearing so sometimes you’d be best not to get too worried and to look more at the content! You never know how someone has been eduuctaed or whether they have a 2 year old pulling off their arm otr they may not care too much. I suggest don’t write them off due to a few writing errors it really isn’t THAT significant and what they have written may well be THAT sgnificant (just a thought – wouldn’t do if we were all the same)
There’s a difference between the odd typo due to time pressures and consistantly making a basic error though. Odd typos are something everyone does, basic errors pull me out of reading and absorbing the content. If someone wants to be read and absorbed, shouldn’t they do all they can to not create barriers to that?
I hear you Becky! I expect I am guilty of many of those mistakes! I try my best and that is all I can do.
Mich x
All so true and all so annoying when somebody else does it. But when I make these same mistakes it’s because I am in a hurry and thus should be forgiven.
As a speech and language therapist, language and grammar are very important to me and errors do scream out at me (not literally though). We did have to stop mum using text speak – she tried her best but after two years still thought lol stood for lots of love, and does still occasionally sign texts and emails that way!