Groanings of a Grammar Bully

I have an apparently rare affliction. I’m able to spot grammatical and typographical errors like a hawk can zero in on a field mouse while gliding half a mile above it. I find them in newspapers, books, menus, and even on road signs. And they bug me. But the ones I really want to swoop down on are the senseless mistakes in business writing.

When you make one of these mistake in a report, memo, email, cover letter, or sales pitch, it doesn’t matter how good your content or intent is. You lose a point in the mind of the reader. Like those seemingly flawless Olympic skating performances that aren’t perfect in the eyes of the judges, costing the athlete a gold medal.

So, if you want to communicate your words with power, start by avoiding some of these common mistakes.

Lets vs. Let’s. The first one lets you communicate permission. The second one is a contraction, shortened from “Let us.”

A lot vs. Alot. The second one is just plain wrong. “A lot” is always, always two words.

Stationery vs. Stationary. The first one refers to letterhead, envelopes, and such. You can remember this by the “er” in “stationery” and the “er” at the end of “letter”. The second word means something that is standing still.

Its vs. It’s. The first one is a possessive pronoun, like “his” or “hers” where the “s” is tagged on the end without an apostrophe. “It’s” is a conjunction of “It is”.

Start with these and later we’ll move on to the angst of choosing between “who” and “whom”, and “that” and “which”. I know you’re on the edge of your seat.

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