Email Style & Etiquette - Common Writing Errors

A refresher course on writing is always a good idea.  I am treated to a lively discussion of grammar issues whenever I get together with my writer friends.  A few of these friends teach college writing skills, and it is no surprise to me to hear that student writing is often full of errors.

But professional writing, or business writing, should be a cut above the rest.

The resources are out there for learning to edit for errors.  We all remember Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, and there's my favorite, the AP Stylebook for journalists.

Check out "5 Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb" at Copyblogger. 

For a refresher course on common business grammar issues, take the test at BusinessWriting.com's "The Most Common Business Usage Errors."

And here are a few of my own make-my-skin-crawl careless mistakes:

1. It's used as the possessive - the only use for "it's" is as a contraction for it + is.
2. Vague pronoun references - for example, "Send me the book before the weekend, since it is a long one."
3. Good used for well - the word well most often should be used as an adverb, describing a verb.

If you have time, also check out GrammarErrors.com.