10 more simple mistakes to avoid

Friday, 03 July 2009 10:22 Written by Andrew Halloway

Here are ten more common mistakes that, if avoided, will help your writing look more professional:

1. Plurals don't have apostrophes!

This one could easily have made my top ten list of mistakes, it's so annoying. How many times do you see people write apostrophes before the 's' of a plural for no reason? E.g. DVD's instead of DVDs, CD's instead of CDs. Just because you are using an acronym (abbreviation using initial letters of each word) doesn't mean you need an apostrophe when pluralising it - just add the 's' like you do for most other plurals. Remember: apostrophes are only for contractions, e.g. isn't (where the apostrophe indicates an absent letter or letters) and ownership, e.g. John's.

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10 mistakes that make you look stupid

Wednesday, 10 June 2009 15:25 Written by Andrew Halloway

Here are my personal top ten of the most common mistakes I come across in spellings, together with examples of right and wrong usage. Avoid them if you want to avoid a bad impression.

Spellcheckers won't pick all of these up, because although they're mistakes, they actually form other words - correctly spelled - that mean something completely different! Several are to do with possessive words...

1: It's instead of its (or even its'!), or the other way round!

Wrong: Buy this trampoline and get it's cover free.
Right: Buy this trampoline and get its cover free.

Wrong: The photocopier is broken. Its making a loud noise.
Right: The photocopier is broken. It's making a loud noise.

Remember: it's is short for it is, and its is possessive - like my, mine, yours, his, hers.

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Getting the right word in the right place

Friday, 05 June 2009 08:51 Written by Andrew Halloway

In conversation you can get away with most wrong choices of words because most people understand what you mean. But written communication isn't so forgiving.

When you're talking to someone and use the wrong word, he or she hears the whole sentence and so understands what you meant to say because of the context in which it was said. Whoever you're talking to assumes it was a slip of the tongue, or thinks they misheard you - so they don't mind. And when you're communicating verbally you don't have to spell anything right, just pronounce it right!

But these days, we do more written communication than verbal, particularly email and texting, but also the occasional letter or comps slip, plus promotional literature like brochures and leaflets, adverts, press releases, etc.

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Top tips for effective press releases - pt 3

Thursday, 21 May 2009 15:55 Written by Andrew Halloway

Here are a few more ideas to help you get into the media...

6. Keep it short

Whether you're distributing your press release by email or by hard copies in the post, keep it short. Long press releases are off-putting. For an email, 500 words or less is fine; 300 would be even better. For a printed press release, keep it to one side of A4 if possible. If not, stick to two pages at most, but continue on the back of one sheet rather than using a separate sheet. The simpler the better.

If emailing, you can always include links to where more information can be found, or if posting hard copies, add in website references where editors can quickly find the same information.

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