You Might Be A Writer If…

May 8, 2012 on 8:00 am | In Blogs, content development, Copywriting, My Creative Team, Writing | 5 Comments
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There are some writing errors that can make you appear stupid, particularly if you call yourself a professional writer. You would not believe – or perhaps you would – how many times I have received content from “writers” containing some of these errors. So, I have compiled my list of things you need to know if writing is your vocation or avocation.

You might be a writer if you know:

- – how to use there, their and they’re correctly

- – the difference between its and it’s

- – when to use peek, peak and pique

- – the difference between affect and effect

- – how to use an apostrophe correctly

- – when to use a hyphen to form a two-word adjective

- – the difference between loose and lose

- – when to use roll instead of role

- – that it is never correct to use “should of” in place of “should have”

OK, that’s my list. Which ones did I omit that really irk you?

Harry Hoover

Harry Hoover is a partner in My Creative Team, the agency that makes Fortune 1000 clients look good. His communications career spans 35 years and runs the gamut from print and broadcast journalism, government and corporate communications to advertising and public relations agencies.

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  • dsilvers2

    Confusing your and you’re

  • http://www.my-creativeteam.com Harry Hoover

    Good call on your and you’re.

  • http://twitter.com/FreshGreenKim FreshGreenKim

    try and instead of try to (
    http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/try.html)

  • http://twitter.com/LectriceUSA Laura E. Kelly

    Great list—I’m seeing those errors all the time these days (I especially hate ‘loose’ for ‘lose’ and ‘your’ for ‘you’re,’ as dsilvers2 noted). Everyone makes errors in haste, but now that copyeditors have been cut back on newspapers and in book publishing, we’re seeing more and more of these usage mistakes turn up in print. Writers need to be more vigilant than ever!

  • http://www.my-creativeteam.com Harry Hoover

    Laura, agreed. Writers do need to be more vigilant, and aspiring writers really need to bring their A game. I get a lot of guest blogger requests and if they make any of these errors in the pitch, their email goes into the trash.

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