You’re a numbers person—it’s why your clients come to you. When it comes to finance, creating proposals, and understanding the markets, you’re creative and insightful, but there may be some things that you struggle with when it comes to written communication. It may not be coming up with ideas or even writing them down, but common grammar mistakes that make your marketing copy or even client emails may seem less professional. It’s not unusual, as you’ve spent your time educating yourself about other aspects of business ownership, but perhaps you left the finer points of grammar back in school.
However, those basic mistakes can cost you credibility with clients. A well-crafted written piece is much more effective when it’s not hampered by grammatical errors. Spell check can only do so much, as you know. Take a few minutes and head back to school to brush up on how to avoid common grammatical pitfalls!
1. Possessives
To show ownership, we use apostrophes. For singular possessive, put the apostrophe before the ‘s.’
Example: The student’s notebook was a mess.
For plural possessive, the apostrophe goes after the ‘s.’
Example: The students’ desks were all destroyed in the flood.
There are two schools of thought on how to handle possession for a singular noun that ends with an ‘s.’ Some say the apostrophe goes at the end without adding another ‘s,’ however, the other method states that when a name ends in an ‘s,’ you should add an apostrophe and an ‘s.’
Example: It had only been James’s chair that was swept away.
2. Misplaced Modifiers
This is a word or phrase placed too far from the noun being described to make the meaning clear.
Example: They had another baby named Charming Charly.
Do they have two babies named Charming Charly?
They had another baby and named him Charming Charly.
Ah, that makes more sense.
3. Referring to Entities as “They”
Keep in mind that a brand, business, or entity is one thing, not plural. When you talk about a brand, make it singular.
Example: McBurgerWorld had to change its business strategy after the Great Bun Shortage of 2011.
4. Commas: The Bane of Many Writers
We could do a whole blog post on comma usage, but let’s look at the most common correct uses.
- To separate items in a series: For example: I picked strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. The final comma, called an Oxford comma, is optional, depending on your company’s style guidelines for writing.
- To separate an introductory word or phrase: This would include words you use at the beginning of a sentence that require a comma. Example: In the end, I still didn’t know how to use a comma. Common introductory words and phrases include things like “after,” “when,” “while,” and “however,” as well as the classic “once upon a time.”
- To separate independent clauses: You can use commas to separate independent clauses (clauses that are full sentences with a noun and verb of their own) that are joined by words like “and,” “but,” “or,” and “yet,” among others. To make sure you’ve got independent clauses, ask yourself if the second half of the sentence could stand on its own. If so, add a comma. If not, leave it out. Example: We had just gotten out of the car, but the rain was already pouring down.
5. Title Capitalization
There is some variety among style guides, but the general rules for capitalization in the title of an article, book, song, etc. are:
- Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are always capitalized.
- Articles are lowercase unless they’re the first or last word of the title.
Example: The First Financial Professional to Reach the Moon
6. Passive Voice: Take a Bit More Action
This isn’t necessarily a mistake, but something you’ll want to avoid to make your writing more dynamic. Consider the following:
The plan was written by our office.
Vs.
Our office wrote the proposal.
The second one puts the action back on your office, which is just where you want the attention.
7. Talking about Me vs. I
These seem very obvious until you get caught up in a sentence.
Example: When you get the email, could you forward it to Moxie and I?
That may sound correct, but it’s actually wrong. An easy trick to make sure you’re using the right word is to take Moxie right out of the sentence. You’ll find that sounds weird, as “I” is the object of the sentence, and whenever talking about yourself as the object, you would say “me.”
Example: When you get the email, could you forward it to Moxie and me?
There you go.
8. Tricky Words
- Then vs. Than: “Then” is an adverb to talk about time. “Than” is a conjunction to make comparisons.
Example: He put an egg in his shoe, then he beat it.
Example: My apple is bigger than yours.
- You’re vs. Your: “You’re” is a state of being something; it is a conjunction of the words “you are.” “Your” shows ownership.
Example: You’re being a big baby about this.
Example: Your orange is bigger than mine.
- There vs. Their vs. They’re: “There” is talking about position. “Their” denotes plural ownership. “They’re” is a conjunction of “they are.”
Example: I left the sparkly thing over there.
Example: Their house is really nice after the remodel.
Example: They’re not being very good about sharing the apples and oranges.
- Its vs It’s: “Its” is possessive. “It’s” is a conjunction of the words “it is.”
Example: The tree shed all its leaves.
Example: It’s a nice night for a walk.
- Affect vs. Effect: These two are related, just be sure you’re using them in the right situations. “Affect” is a verb, and it relates to the act of changing. “Effect” is a noun, and it’s talking about the change itself.
Example: The speech affected me hugely, and I cried.
Example: The speech had a huge effect on my college career. There are many more tricky words combos or other grammatical tripwires that you might come across in your writing. Are there any particular words or phrases that you have a difficult time keeping straight? Putting in the extra effort to make sure your writing is grammatically accurate is a small but very effective way to put a little more polish on your professionalism.
