Oops! There Goes Another Misspelled Word

The staff at my local grocery store obviously meant to convey the message that they don’t ACCEPT returns.  In fact, I found out later, the word “accept” did not make dictionaryscoop.com‘s list of 12 Most Common English Spelling Mistakes, which includes the words accommodate, apparent, acknowledgment, calendar, colleague, entrepreneur, led (past tense of “lead”), necessary, receive, successful, and withhold. CNBC adds conscientious, experience, guidance, occurrence, and fulfill.

“Spelling seems like such a minor thing,” Kathy and Ross Petras admit in the CNBC piece, “but It’s actually one of the most problematic issues we deal with in the business world.”  Bad spelling can put a dent in your professional reputation, the authors caution, citing a survey showing that 79% of recruiters and HR managers said spelling and grammatical mistakes “were the biggest deal breakers in job hunting.”

Along with spelling mistakes, grammar errors can make a content writer “look dumb”, as Brian Clark of Copyblogger emphasizes, pointing to your/you’re, it’s/its, there/their, and affect/effect.

“We’re all busy, and we all make mistakes,,” Clark admits, but if you want to be taken seriously, it’s important to get serious about grammar.

As a content marketer at Say It For You, my favorite recommendation to both business owners and the freelance blog content writers they hire to bring their message to customers is this:

Prevent blog content writing “wardrobe malfunctions”, including grammar errors, run-on sentences, and spelling errors. Blogs (as I’ve often taught) are more personal and more informal than formal letters or even home pages on websites, but they shouldn’t be sloppy.  Unlike your sixth grade teacher, internet searchers won’t “correct your paper”. They may very well navigate away from your blog and find somewhere else to go!

When it comes to common grammar mistakes, the pairs I find are most often confused are these:

Who/that

“Who” always refers to a person; “that” refers to a thing.

Between/among

“Between” refers to the space or difference between two things: “among” refers to the difference among three or more things.

Lay/Lie

“Lay” means to set something down; the verb “lie” means either to tell an untruth, or to assume a horizontal position.

Advise/Advice

“Advise” (with the “s” pronounced like a “z”) is a verb meaning you offer “advice” (counsel).

Allow the next spelling or grammar error to be something you find in someone’s else’s message, not your own!