Common Errors in English Usage

As communicators and salespeople, words are our tools. We depend upon them for our livelihood. They help us to develop persuasive proposals, to create compelling commercials, and to write effective emails and letters to our clients and confidants.

Remember the opening line of the old Verbal Advantage commercials? "People do judge you by the words you use." Our credibility and effectiveness are enhanced or diminished in proportion to our competent use of words.

Spell-checking is certainly useful for calling our attention to typos, or suggesting we change grammer to grammar. But type the following into Word and see what happens:

I would of preferred to mett on Tuesday.

Your spell-checker will suggest you change "mett" to "meet" (among others), but it fails to catch and correct the misuse of "of" (which, of course, should be "have").

We send emails or post online comments with such haste (and seeming disregard for the old standards of English usage) these days, it's no wonder that the rules seem increasingly irrelevant. But if we are to be taken seriously as professional communicators, shouldn't we be setting a better example?

May I share with you one of my favorite reference works? Common Errors in English Usage is the title of a book written by Paul Brians, an Emeritus Professor of English at Washington State University here in Pullman. The printed version is within arm's reach when I'm at my desk.

When I learned that Prof. Brians' extensive compilation of common errors was also available - free! - on the Web, I bookmarked it and added it to my "quick launch" list of websites.

I hope you'll enjoy this reference tool as much as I do.