“When will I ever use this?” you may have thought as you sat in that high-school English class. Now, all grown up, you find yourself writing far more than you ever would have expected. E-mails, proposals, letters, and résumés – the written word is everywhere, even in the electronic age.
Writing might not be your strength, but the way you write still says a lot to employers, clients, and co-workers. Like coming to a job interview in torn jeans and a stained sweatshirt, sending out poorly dressed written communication (with misspellings, grammar errors, and misplaced punctuation) will cause others to think less of your ability to do your job well.
Though grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors abound in our culture, “Everybody else is doing it” won’t fly as an excuse with your employer or clients any more than it did with your mother when you were a teenager. And while some grammar rules are changing (such as the ban on starting a sentence with “and”), rules don’t always change simply because a multitude of people break them. Some common errors can completely change the meaning of a sentence; others simply make the writer look sloppy. Even a few errors can make the difference between an outstanding presentation and a “No, thank you” from a potential client.
Just in case you spent more time in your English class checking out the cutie next to you than you did learning the rules of language, here are ten common errors to avoid when you write your next business communication...
