We understand that being able to write in a clear and professional style is important to your business. That is why we have developed the Business Writing Institute and the Effective Business Writing seminar. This practice-driven business writing workshop will significantly improve your ability to write in English, so that your readers will receive a clear, concise, effective message. Most professionals spend at least 15-20% of their time writing for business; emails, memos, business letters, reports and other business correspondence. Our customized approach guarantees an improvement in business communication skills that will increase your productivity, success and job satisfaction.
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Benefits of business writing training classes:
- learn how to write a business letter
- discover the skills of writing a business letter
- learn to create clear business correspondence
- understand the difference of writing for business
- improve overall business communication
Business Writing Training: Avoid These Common Business Writing Errors
When writing for business purposes, accuracy counts. While using a word processing program with spellchecker and auto-correct can help a lot, there are some errors that the spellchecker simply won’t catch. For example, it won’t realize you meant “accept” when you wrote “except” because it’s still a correctly-spelled word.
There are many commonly confused words in the English language that cause problems for both native and non-native writers. Even aside from punctuation, spelling and garden-variety grammatical errors, these words are stumbling blocks that can trip up your business writing in a hurry.
Here is a Top-10 listing of commonly confused words. Avoid making these mistakes when composing your business writing and you’ll come up smelling like a rose.
1. Accept and except: This pair, mentioned above, are near-homonyms (that is, they sound almost the same) and as a result some people tend to confuse their meanings.
Accept, meaning to receive or approve, is the verb in “I accept your apology.”
Except can be a verb as well, as in the phrase “present company excepted,” but is more commonly used as a preposition:
“I liked everything except the cake.” (sometimes except for)
Or as a conjunction:
“They are similar, except they are spelled differently and have different meanings.” (sometimes except that)
Please accept that there are no exceptions to this rule.
2. Principal and principle: You were probably told at some point during your education that “the Principal is your pal,” but that’s not very helpful when your talking about finance or ethics or pretty much anything that doesn’t have to do with old Mr. Winters from Crockett Junior High.
Principal, as a general rule, means the first, or most important. That’s the easiest way to remember all the places where the term is applicable: the principal of a school, the principal on a loan, the principal owner of a company, the principal actor in a play.
Principle denotes an essential rule, doctrine or tenet: moral principles, principles of physics, etc. A “man of principle” is one who has principles and lives by them. You object to something “on principle.”
The principal thing to remember is to follow this principle: don't mix them up.
3. Your and you’re: This one is easy, or at least it should be. The clue, and the confusion, lies in the apostrophe. That nifty little mark often means that something is missing; that two words have been shoved together and a letter or two left out in the middle. That’s called a contraction.
However, an apostrophe can also be used to show possession, as in “David’s car” or “Mr. Brown’s dog,” and here is where so many people get lost. They associate the apostrophe with possession, and end up using contractions in place of possessive adjectives. Are you confused yet?
Your is a possessive adjective: “That is your lunchbox.” No apostrophe necessary. Try replacing it with my, his, or her. My lunchbox. Hey, there’s no apostrophe there either.
You’re is a contraction of you are, and that’s exactly what it means: “You’re about to drive off a cliff.” Try replacing that with my. Nope, doesn’t work, does it?
Get this one straight in your mind, and you’re sure to do just fine.
4. Its and it’s: As long as we’re discussing contractions, let’s get this one out of the way. This may be the most commonly confused pair of them all, and it’s really quite simple.
Its is a possessive pronoun: “The mouse has lost its tail.” Her tail? His tail? We don’t know, but those words don’t have apostrophes. Its doesn’t either, in this case.
It’s just means it is: “It’s a very sad mouse.” It is a very sad mouse. It is. It’s.
It’s easy to see why it’s a problem, but remember this rule and its days are numbered.
5. Whose and who’s: Yet another of the confusing contraction combos.
Whose is the possessive: “Whose purse is this?” “The lady whose chair you stole.”
Who’s, as you might guess by now, means who is: “Who’s that?” “The one who’s kicking your ankle.”
The one who’s clear on this rule is the one whose writing will benefit.
6. Effect and affect: This is a very common mistake, and even the best of us get tripped up here sometimes. Many authorities will tell you that “effect” is a noun and “affect” is a verb, and for most purposes that rule of thumb will work. However, each word has several meanings, and there are some instances where “effect” can be used as a verb and where “affect” can be used as a noun, so it gets pretty confusing!
Affect, as a verb, often means to have an impact or to alter: “The oil spill will affect the fishing industry.” It can also mean to move emotionally: “The music affected him deeply.” A less common usage means to feign or pretend: “He affected a British accent, even though he’s from Oklahoma.”
One instance where affect can be a noun occurs in psychology and psychiatry, where it may be applied to emotion or speech: “A flat or blunted affect may be a sign of schizophrenia.”
Effect, as a noun, means an impact or result: “The oil spill had a serious effect on the fishing industry.”
Effect can also be used as a verb meaning to bring about or accomplish: “The administration effected great changes in policy.”
You may still be confused, but I hope to effect a change in your way of thinking. If I affect you as I hope, it should have a positive effect.
7. Discreet and discrete: Did you even know that there were two of these? Perfect homonyms, they sound exactly alike, and they’re both adjectives. Many people seem to be blissfully unaware of the distinction.
Discreet means unobtrusive, tactful, and circumspect, especially to avoid embarrassment or distress: “She maintained a discreet silence about the situation.”
Discrete means separate, different, not connected: “The intelligence network was divided into discrete segments to prevent leaks.”
If you're still puzzled, I'll be discreet and tell you quietly that these are two discrete terms.
8. Their, there, and their: Oh no, now there's three of them. Three completely different words that sound exactly alike.
There is a place or a place-holder (think location, location, location!): "From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere." - Dr. Seuss "There was nobody on the stage when the curtains opened."
Their is a possessive adjective, like my, his, or her: "Their eyes popped out of their heads when they saw the house."
They're is a contraction of they are: "They're going to a new restaurant."
There you have it. They're a lot alike in sound, but their meanings are different.
9. Less and fewer – these aren’t homonyms, but do have very similar meanings.
Less means a smaller amount or degree. It should be used with abstracts or “mass nouns” - things that count as a single unit: less sugar, less time, less crowding. “The movie was less frightening than I expected.”
Fewer is used with plural nouns, things that can be counted individually: fewer spoons, fewer hours, fewer people. “The express lane at the grocery store is for shoppers with ten items or fewer.”
An exception to this rule is the use of less with aggregates measuring things like money and distance, as in “less than $10” or “less than five miles.”
Hopefully this rule will result in less confusion and fewer mistakes.
10. Who and whom – Many people aren’t clear on these and it can lead to either overly informal or hypercorrect usage.
Who is a normal pronoun and will be used either as the subject of a sentence - “Who painted the picture?” – or in a clause modifying the subject: “Anyone who wants to can come.”
Whom is the objective form of who, and will generally follow any modifiers such as with, to, about: “With whom are you staying?” “He is the one to whom I addressed the letter.” “Whom did you give the message to?”
Technically whom should be applied even when the modifier is absent, as in “Whom did you give the message?” (where “to” is understood). Most people in informal speech would ask, “Who did you give the message to?” which isn’t correct in formal business writing.
To whom it may concern: he who heeds this rule will have no problems.
This is hardly an exhaustive list of confusing words, but ten is enough for now. Keep these rules in mind and your business writing will make a much stronger and more professional impression!
Source: Amy English link
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