Grammar Police?
June 27, 2009 by Allison Boyer
Filed under Jobs
I’m not known for my excellent grammar and spelling. Actually, more often than not, I just type too fast for my own good – and while I’m excellent at proofreading others’ work, I find it extremely difficult to spot my own mistakes. My problem isn’t, in general, not knowing the rules, but that doesn’t really matter. As a writer, mistakes can be fatal to a relationship with your clients, whether you knew the rule or not.
Image: sxc.hu
What drives me nuts, though, is the fact that many freelancers out there don’t seem to know the rules at all.
We all make mistakes, but some blogs and websites get hard to read because the writer makes the same glaring mistake over and over again. When you constantly use “there” instead of “their” or “they’re,” you start to lose my respect a little. A typo or isolated error? I can overlook that, but some mistakes I cannot.
So, over the next few days, I’m going to go over some basic grammar rules that every freelancer should know.
Call me the grammar police if you will, but if I teach just one person one rule, I’ll be happy and the Internet will be a better place for everyone.
Oh, and if you have a grammar question that you want answered, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll try my best to cover it.
I’ll list the posts here as they go live!
I just finished a manuscript editing project, and every third sentence had a semicolon. I wanted to scream! I had edited for this author before, and I pointed out this annoyance, but he still continues. It’s one of my pet peeves; I hate it.
I like your test for the me and I question. Now if you can only do something as simple for to and too. Why? because I always mix these up and looking in the dictionary with all the multiple options… well it’s Shackfail.
I use moving and quantity memory aids where I can but still at times Shackfail.
“He moved TO the bar.”
“He had eaten TOO many sweets.”
Any help will be much appreciated because out of my many grammar failings, this one is the most obvious and annoying, even if it is not the most frequent.