1. SPELLING AND GRAMMAR
A lesson in the English Language that you
never thought you needed (but you really
do)
2. WHY BOTHER?
We use language as a form of communication to relay information
We write to preserve that information and share it when we aren’t physically able to do so
Using the correct spelling and grammar is important as it affects the way that the information is
preserved and later interpreted – particularly to those whose first language isn’t English
More importantly, it saves lives…
A misplaced comma can completely change the meaning of “Let’s eat, Grandpa!” to “Let’s eat
Grandpa!”
3. I BEFORE E
Except when your foreign neighbour Keith receives eight
counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated
weightlifters
Weird
4. COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS
Apostrophes
• Incorrect: I can’t believe its finally Friday.
• Correct: I can’t believe it’s finally Friday.
• Incorrect: The cat was licking it’s tail.
• Correct: The cat was licking its tail.
Contraction
Turning “it is” into “it’s”
Ownership
The tail belongs to the cat
5. TO AFFECT AN EFFECT
Affect with an A is an Action
Effect with an E is an End-result
6. COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS
Commas
• Incorrect: We didn’t go to the beach, because of the weather.
• Correct: We didn’t go to the beach because of the weather.
• Incorrect: He ran as fast as he could they still caught him.
• Correct: He ran as fast as he could, but they still caught him.
• Incorrect: I was going to take her out to dinner, however I decided not to.
• Correct: I was going to take her out to dinner; however, I decided not to.
Superfluous
Adding commas
excessively
Run-on
Connecting two clauses
Comma splice
Connecting two sentences
7. GHOTI = FISH
When “gh” = “f” as in rouGH
When “o” = “I” as in wOmen
When “ti” = “sh” as in naTIon
8. COMMON SPELLING ERRORS
Homophones
• Incorrect: We went to the park together. We went to the gym to.
• Correct: We went to the park together. We went to the gym too.
• Incorrect: The wind blew there papers away.
• Correct: The wind blew their papers away.
• Incorrect: That colour compliments the shade of your eyes.
• Correct: That colour complements the shade of your eyes.
In addition
Going to the gym as well
Ownership
The papers belong to
them
Completion
Colours complete each other
9. COVFEFE
The tweet that baffled 31 million people around the world
in 2017 confirms Trump is still an idiot
10. COMMON SPELLING ERRORS
Wrong words
• Incorrect: Who’s coat is that jacket?
• Correct: Whose coat is that jacket?
• Incorrect: The next addition of this magazine is in June.
• Correct: To next edition of this magazine is in June.
Ownership
The coat/jacket belongs to
them
Not maths
And it’s not rocket science
11. SMELLS LIKE COLON
There’s nothing more intimate than sharing the scent of
your organs with your significant other
12. SO, WHY BOTHER?
“The rule is: Don’t use commas like a stupid person. I mean it.” — Lynne
Truss, Author of ‘Eats, Shoots, & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to
Punctuation’
“It’s hard to take someone seriously when they leave you a note saying,
“Your ugly.” My ugly, what? The idiot didn’t even know the difference
between your and you’re.” — Cara Lynn Shultz, Author of ‘Spellcaster’
Poor spelling and grammar skills - fairly or unfairly - can taint you or your
brand’s credibility and have an impact on the way others perceive you or
your brand.
Nobody’s perfect, but when it comes down to it, poor grammar and
spelling harms your credibility and makes you look careless.
So yeah, the English language is weird and doesn’t always follow its own rules. As a matter of fact, what we know as the English Language today wasn’t the same just a couple of hundred years ago. It’s constantly evolving. In 2018 alone, over 1,000 words were added to the Oxford English dictionary, including “mansplain”, “hangry”, and “Tom Swifty”.
Apostrophes are those upside down commas that hang in the air between letters. Punctuation is often abused in our writing, but none more so than the humble apostrophe. Here are a few examples.
This one confuses most of us, but the best way to remember is to use this phrase.
It’s common writing mistake to throw commas around liberally when they aren’t necessary and even omit them altogether. Here are some examples.
How are Ghoti and Fish pronounced the same?
Of course, this is a joke*. The word "ghoti" is not even a real word. But it shows the inconsistency of English spelling.
It is very important to understand that English spelling and English pronunciation are not always the same.
Homophones are words that sound the same, but are spelt differently and have different meanings. They can sometimes creep into our writing and give a completely different context than what we mean. Here are some examples.
The almighty God of internet typos, Covfefe, was brought into existence by Trump in May 2017 as part of his attack on the media. The tweet, which was removed six hours later, caused him to be the butt of many jokes and memes around the world. Which goes to show that the humble typo can make us appear less intelligent than we are.
These days we conduct much of our daily business by quick-fire finger-jabbing on tiny screens. But ever-smaller technology, and an increasing pressure for ever-quicker response times with the advent of email, means it’s likely a typo will creep into our written communication, or worse, autocorrect will insert an inappropriate word.
Spell-check sometimes corrects spelling to a different word than intended; if the writing is not later proofread, this computer-created error goes unnoticed.
We can make a very poor impression on other people when we do not correct our spelling errors.
