Years ago I taught Freshman English. I can’t count the number of times a student told me that what I taught, basic grammar and writing skills, didn’t matter.

I’m afraid that I didn’t do a great job of convincing my students that their writing skills would matter once they entered the work force.

Misconceptions

“I’m going to be a nurse, I don’t need to write essays.”

Fill in whatever career you like, but if it wasn’t directly related to writing, then most students assume that they won’t need to be able to write well, or even passably well.

I work in the IT field, and there isn’t a person I know who doesn’t answer several, sometimes dozens, of e-mails ever day. Yes, your ability to communicate clearly and well matters. Making lots of grammar errors can and will mark you as someone possessing substandard communication skills.

“I’ll have a secretary to do my writing for me.”

This one is actually pretty funny. I don’t know of many people who have a dedicated secretary, unless you’re a CEO. If you have an assistant at all, you’ll likely share that person with several others. No, he/she won’t have time to write all your e-mails for you.

The truth

You don’t have to have the same level of writing skills that your English teachers demanded. For most people, that’s unrealistic as well. Keep in mind your English teachers were pushing you to learn as much as possible, and holding you to a high standard in order to do that.

In the workplace, you do need to have good writing skills, but they can still be imperfect but acceptable.

How do you know if they’re good enough? Compare yourself to others. Try comparing your writing abilities with those immediately above you, that is, your manager and his/her peers. Do you write at least as well as they do? If so, that’s great. Your writing skills are probably fine for now.

What if you don’t measure up?

Improving your skills

It’s tough to improve your writing skills without some feedback. Here are a few ideas for getting help to improve your writing.

• Take a class. This is obvious, and probably the most traditional approach. However, a good class devoted to business writing will do wonders for your abilities. Check your local community colleges for classes that won’t break your budget.
• Join an online writer’s group. You’ll probably have to commit to reading and commenting on others’ work, but this can be a good way to improve your writing skills as well.
• Ask for help at work. Ask a coworker who writes well to proofread your material. Don’t ask that he/she just fix it, but ask them to explain to you what the problem was. This is a bit tougher, as it will involve getting someone else to commit their time to helping you improve your writing skills. However, if you can find a willing mentor, it certainly works.

Many commonly misused words are also homophones. Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelled and mean something different. Because the words sound alike, they’re often used incorrectly. Here are a few examples of commonly misused words you should watch out for.

By the way, I saw each of these mistakes made today, so they’re not as uncommon as you might think, or hope.

Weather and Whether

Some people say these two words differently, others don’t. I put a definite “h” sound (a breathy sound) in whether than I don’t do with weather. Others insist that they can’t hear any difference between the two.

People who don’t hear any difference between the two words often used them incorrectly.

Weather refers to rain, snow, sun, etc. As in the following.

1. I don’t know what the weather will be tomorrow.
2. Stormy weather is my favorite song.
3. This rainy weather has got me depressed.

Whether means if.

1. I don’t know whether I’ll go to the movie or the mall first.
2. John doesn’t care whether you get a raise this year!

How about this one?

Do you know whether the weather is supposed to be nice this weekend?

Are and Our

This one is tougher for me to understand people getting wrong, but I see it all the time. I think it’s a matter of the person’s accent. I say our and are completely differently, but I know some people pronounce them virtually the same.

Again, these words are nothing alike in terms of meaning.

Our is a pronoun, meaning that something belongs to us.

1. Our house needs to be painted this year.
2. This has not been our day, has it?
3. Our project won’t be completed in time for the senior staff meeting.

Are is a verb, specifically a form of the verb “to be.”

1. John and Amanda are getting married this October.
2. Are you going out this weekend?
3. What are you doing?

An and And

Again, this one boils down to accent and getting the words confused because you say the two the same way.

An is an article, like “a,” only intended to be used before a word starting with a vowel. So, you’d say “a banana” but “an apple.”

1. I have a problem with an overbearing boss who won’t listen to anyone else’s opinion.
2. An orange is a portable, healthy breakfast.

And is a conjunction, linking two word, phrases or sentences.

1. We shopped at the mall, and we spent too much money. (links two sentences)
2. We bought clothes and shoes while we were there. (linking words)
3. Alex dropped off the car, met us for lunch, and drove us home later. (linking phrases)

Even if you don’t have problems with these commonly misused words, understanding the relationship between what we hear, how we say a word, and how that affects how we spell the word can be very useful. If you understand why someone is making a mistake, whether it’s your student, child, friend, etc. you have a better chance of fixing the problem.

Yes, I’d definitely call all of these errors a problem. Some errors in grammar and word choice are more forgivable than others. No one’s perfect, and I’m sure you can find some mistakes here on this blog if you look. However, some errors stand out more than others and mark you as having some real problems with communication.