Fresh Eyes
If the proofreading fairy hasn’t visited your office lately, you might be blissfully unaware of grammar gremlins or spelling slip-ups in your sales writing. Not only do you risk confusing your audience, you also risk your business reputation.
In short, poor grammar or spelling errors portray an unprofessional image. Though your copy might be overflowing with fabulous benefits, if a prospect spots an error, you may well lose a customer. Is it worth it?
To avoid unnecessary copy blunders, open your eyes to the following.
What are homophones?
If you snoozed during English lessons, you might have forgotten what homophones are. These are words which sound the same, but are spelt differently and have different meanings. No wonder people have problems with them!
Common spelling mix-ups include:
- Affect and Effect
Affect is a verb – to change or influence something. Business is affected by…
Effect is a noun – or a result of something. Marketing can have a huge effect on…
- Its and it’s
This is a biggie! It’s is a contraction or a shortened word for it is. The apostrophe always goes between the t and the s.
Its belongs to or relates to something. ‘The company increased its profits.’
- Principal and principle
Principal can refer to the first of something. ‘The principal reason for…’ You can also have a college principal.
A principle is a matter of honour or relating to an idea. You might have business principles or agree in principle with something.
- Stationary and stationery
When you’re not moving, you are stationary.
Your desk, on the other hand, might be littered with stationery. (writing materials)
- Too and to
Too is an adverb for ‘more’ and is placed before an adjective to emphasise something positive or negative. ‘It’s too expensive.’
To is a preposition used before and after verbs. ‘A copywriter can help you to…’
- Compliment and complement
You might give someone a compliment. ‘I’d like to compliment you on your…’
Complement is used when you want to show that something goes with something else. ‘Strawberries and cream complement each other…’
- License and licence
License is a verb when something is allowed or permitted. So you can be licensed to fly a plane.
A licence is noun for a permit or permission to do what you want. You might have poetic licence, for example, or be James Bond with, ‘Licence to Kill.’ Confusion often arises if you are writing for an American audience. Americans spell licence with an s! Aargh!
- Precede and Proceed
Precede means to come before something. You might precede the report with a short introduction.
When you proceed, you continue as planned or go forwards. ‘Proceed to the exit…’
- Weather and whether
Brits are obsessed with it! The weather is all about the climate.
Whether is a conjunction used when asking questions or expressing doubt. It’s another word for ‘if’ … whether you like it or not.
- Right and write
When you are right, you are correct. Right is also a direction and reference to a political persuasion. And of course, you should know what your rights are!
To write is all about writing words or recording something. Something we at The Word Well spend our days doing!
Copy clarity
Has that cleared up some confusion for you? The trick is to read your copy several times, ask someone else to read your copy for you or, if in doubt, organise a professional proofreader to give it the once over instead! Another pair of eyes can make all the difference.
Remember: your overall message might not be read if poor spellings puts someone off.
Can you think of any other confusing words?
We always spell-check reports for the word ‘manger’ [as in away in a... ] It is a word but it is not ‘manager’ which is probably the word that you meant to type!
Hi Mark. Thanks for dropping by to join in the discussion.
It’s worrying how easy it is to make typos or spelling errors without thinking, isn’t it? And even if you proofread your own writing, you often can’t see the mistake!
Sometimes spell-checkers don’t pick up homophones, which is why you need to be extra vigilant.
Practice and practise often confuse people too.
Hi Steve
Yes, that foxes quite a few people. Key thing to remember is ‘practice’ with a ‘C’ is a noun, whereas ‘practise’ with an ‘S’ is a verb. It’s one of those words you have to think about before you use it!
I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case, great info…I will add a backlink and bookmark your site. Keep up the good work!
I don’t know If I said it already but …This blog rocks! I gotta say, that I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,
A definite great read..Jim Bean
Hey Jim…
Thanks for stopping by. Comments like yours make it all worth while. And thanks for the compliment, T Nelson.
The common mistake that I find most infuriating, is the mix and matching of there, their, and they’re
Hi Jan
Couldn’t agree with you more! Homophones are troublesome critters at the best of times. But, words such as ‘there’ and ‘they’re’ are so different. Perhaps people don’t understand apostrophe use?
Thanks for your comment. Always great to hear what readers think.
One of my favourites is ‘wether’ instead of ‘whether’ – look it up and you’ll never forget which one to use again.
Yes! An absolute classic, Dawn. Thanks for reminding me…
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I have seen piece and peace confused quite a few times.
Good post Nikki, it’s amazing how common these mistakes are.
The one that really gets my goat (to the point I no longer have a goat), is ‘lose’ vs ‘loose’.
You can lose your teeth if they become loose. In a toffee apple eating contest you would likely lose. And even if you won, you might end up with a loose tooth. This is becoming a circular argument!
Hi Rob.
So true! I love your example of how to use ‘lose’ and ‘loose’ correctly. Do you think it’s just laziness that results in such howlers? Or that people are not taught homophones properly?
Thanks for your contribution Rob. Glad I’m not the only one who’s lost several goats!
I think it’s because people are not taught effectively. I suspect it’s because they learn words by saying them aloud and they are not allowed to write them down
Ok, so apparently I’m a bit late to the party, but since I just got here via Twitter, I’ll add my 2c.
Loose is one that I see abused often, especially from who appear to be Americans. Given their propensity to shorten original English words, it’s a little baffling.
The other one I seem to see often is CD’s, DVD’s, FAQ’s, and other acronyms.
Hi Ivan,
Better late than never…
Always good to hear a diverse range of views. So thanks for stopping by.
‘Loose’ and ‘lose’ grates on me too, partly because they don’t even rhyme. (unlike other homophones)
Plural acronyms deserve a post of their own!
Thanks again Ivan.