Now Is Not The Time To be Caught Without Grammar
By Robyn Whyte
More and more, we are bombarded with ads everywhere we go from buses to magazines. Those with a big budget can spell and even mix it up a little by purposely misspelling a word such as right as rite or kids as kidz. But what about you as the small business owner?
The truth is you’re not going to be able to afford the highly educated and literary masterminds behind all of our daily messages and yet, you need to get out there. So what now?
Don’t make the mistake of letting your poor grammar hang out, letting the world see what you didn’t learn at school.
If you really can’t write, consider taking a course. The best kind of course is a Business English class. With the focus off the academic, a course like this teaches all the nuts and bolts. If that isn’t in your budget, buy a grammar book and go through the exercises.
Not a day goes by that I don’t find these mistakes in advertising and assuming you’ll have to go out and get the grammar book, I’ll give you a few tips here and now.
Common Mistakes in words:
- upon spelled as apon or some other variation. Just upon will be fine.
- into spelled as in to
- using good to describe something being done well. Anything that goes with an action word will require well. Eg. You did that well, Sam.
- in side…just inside will do
- out side…try outside
- can not is now fashionable but it is cannot every day of the week
- ain’t…not a word, replace with aren’t where possible
- alright…no, it is all right
- towards…no, that’s toward without the s
- Deer Phil…try Dear, it’ll get you farther
- There father…no, for ownership, you really must use their
- Their off in the distant place…when referring to a place, it is always there.
- They’re hair…That would be they are hair so no, replace with their and use they’re properly too
- a lot, allot…other variations, it is alot in most dictionaries
There are multiple other spelling errors commonly found in ads such as we’re instead of were. As for simple grammar rules not to bend, What about the uncapitalized i? No, not cool. Change that to I. What about not capitalizing words? Don’t do it. If it requires a capital, give it a capital. If it does not, don’t capitalize it. Learn this rule.
When referring to a person in writing, “Well, Sam, it didn’t work.” The name of the person should be separated by a comma.
When writing a run-on sentence, look out for red flags such as the subject starting again.
Eg. I like bread I need more. Clearly, the subject here is the giveaway.
Don’t use exclamation marks like they are going out of style.
As a general rule, get rid of words that promote unfamiliarity. Get rid of anyone, people, someone and anything else and simply replace with ‘you’ in your sales copy. Hopefully though, you will take this message to heart that bad grammar and poor spelling don’t ultimately do anything for you or your business.
Robyn Whyte is the CEO of Stargazer Press at http://www.stargazerpress.com Check out Kate Rizor’s novel ‘The Governor’s Wife’ and V.B. Rosendahl’s ‘Bitter Tastes’.
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