Good Grammar Affects the Effect of a Business Blog – Part B
Holly Sutton lists spelling and grammar errors as #4 among the eleven common mistakes bloggers make in their first year, but as a blog content writing trainer, I find, grammar errors are all too common even among experienced bloggers. With social distancing having left many of us content writers with extra time on our hands, I’m devoting this week’s Say it For You posts to spelling and grammar cleanup hints. In the latest post, I reviewed homonyms, or sound-alikes.
Today, let’s focus on common twosomes that are often used interchangeably – but which shouldn’t be:
- Who always refers to a person; that refers to a thing. I am a person who cares about grammar, because grammar is a thing that helps clarify meaning.
- Whose jacket is this (to which person does the jacket belong)? Who’s on cafeteria duty today (who’s means who is)?
- Given a choice between an orange and an apple, I would always choose the apple. On the other hand, if I had to choose among all possible fruits, I would choose plums. (Use between when there are two objects or people; use among when there are three or more.
- Lay is a verb that commonly means “to put or set (something) down.” Lie is a verb that commonly means to be in or to assume a horizontal position. Peter liked to lie in bed. Before going to bed each evening, he would lay his robe at the foot of the bed.
- Advise (the s is pronunced like a z) is a verb (I advise you to clean up the grammar in your blogs). Advice (a noun) is what I am offering to y0u in this blog post.
- You bring things here and take them there, Jeff Haden explains in Inc.com.
- You are being discreet when you are careful and show good judgment, Haden adds. Discrete means separate or distinct (just what you want to be in your blog, but in a good way).
For sure – in blogging for business, grammar affects the effect!
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