Writing Mistakes to Avoid
Writing Mistakes to Avoid
Copywriting and blogging is meant to be conversational and engaging. In these cases, breaking formal grammatical and spelling conventions can be a good thing. Apart from specific professional or academic contexts, writing with a unique style which makes it easy for viewers to read is more important than pleasing Strunk and White. That said, there are basic and pretty common errors that should be avoided. Below, we at Top Advertising Solutions discuss some of the more glaring errors which you’ll never want to find in your writing. Keep these in mind when writing so you’re sure to appeal to your readers both stylistically and professionally. Let’s dive in.
Me vs. I, Parallelism, and Apostrophes
One of the most common mistakes we see is the choice between “me” and “I.” Frequently, writers use “I” when they should be using “me.” Just because using I can sound formal doesn’t mean it’s correct. The straightforward way to get this right is to simply take away the other person in the sentence and then follow the rules. You wouldn’t say “Give I a call,” so don’t say “Give Chris and I a call.” Now, the next one can be trickier, but your readers really appreciate when you get this one. When writing a list of items in a paragraph, failing to stay in parallel can cause some confusion for readers. Take this example: Over the weekend, John purchased a new laptop, two computer games, and set up free shipping. See the issue? Stick the word “ordered” in front of “two computer games” and parallelism is complete. Your readers will subconsciously thank you. Lastly, let’s address the apostrophe. You use an apostrophe in two situations: in contractions and to show possession. If you’re not doing one of these things, leave the apostrophe out. You’ll just confuse your readers if there’s an apostrophe where there shouldn’t be one. The big one is this: it’s means it is and its means belonging to it. Remember this and you’re good to go.
Let Top Advertising Solutions know your biggest grammar problems or pet peeves in the comments below.