Copywriting Archives
March 15, 2007
Why you should avoid these common mistakes
Two of the most important skills you can have (both in and outside of business) are speaking and writing. However, ever since the Internet rolled around (and possibly even before then), it's been the "big gripe" of readers and writers everywhere: nobody knows how to write anymore! Rather, nobody knows how to use the correct words. Or words at all. This has led to massive confrontations. The average user vs. the poorly-named grammar nazi. The average (or below average) Joe vs. the intellectuals. Abuse of language vs. evolution of language. The list goes on.
The thing is, proper writing isn't just something enforced by overzealous site administrators. While I admit there is often childish behaviour committed in the name of grammar, there is a reason that anyone who knows the rules would prefer others follow them: if you don't, it's much harder to understand you. Use of the wrong words and lack of punctuation means a reader has to spend much more time trying to figure out the meaning of what you wrote. And if you have a large body of text with these evident mistakes (or that looks like code because it's peppered with "ur" "2" and "ftw"), people are likely to skip over it. That's just too much effort.
Another problem is, it hurts your credibility. It doesn't matter if you have a PhD and an IQ of 250; if you right lik this, ur not gunna b taken srsly. It gives off the impression that you don't know the actual meaning of words you use, and that you just wrote without putting any thought into it. Why would anyone assume a writer actually put any effort into their ideas if they can't be bothered to use whole words, or use them correctly?
If you want to see some of the best examples of things that will trip you up, I highly recommend this site. As well, Brian Clark over at Copyblogger put together this great list. Though one thing I feel he missed was for #3, "They're" needs to be included as well. Even though this is the furthest removed from There and Their, and ought to be obvious, I still see many examples of people using the wrong homonym. I'm going to put down a couple of my favourites (the ones that I see the most, and are bothered by the most).
1. Lose/Loose.
Amazing how one letter can change the meaning of a sentence so much. It's a good thing nobody uses Loose as a verb very often anymore, or it would be even more confusing. But really, this is just amateurish, and happens far too often for it to be simply a typo.
2. Begs the Question/Poses (or Raises) the Question
Begging the Question is a logical term, and basically refers to a circular argument (this is an over-simplified definition...if you want a better definition, look at the Common Errors in English site). To pose or to raise a question is when a statement or situation leads to a question needing to be asked.
3. 2/u/ur
Are you really that pressed for time that you can't take less than a second to put a couple more letters down? Or are you trying to cover for the fact that you don't know which to/too/two or your/you're is correct? Incidentally, having "ur" mean both "your" and "you're" can be really confusing, particularly in long paragraphs.
4. For all intensive purposes
It's "for all intents and purposes". Please, think about meaning.
5. Continuing to misspell something when corrected
You have no excuse.
The list goes on, but those are the worst offenders. Anyway. Writing correctly is essential to being taken seriously. Otherwise, people just aren't going to pay attention to you.
Until next time,
JW
