Grammar reminder

With the informality of Instant Messages, it is easy to forgo proper grammar on the Internet; so in order to maintain professionalism, it is important to try to remember at least the most commonly used errors. Some of these are mistakes that spell check can catch. However, many of them are things that we simply have to watch for. So here are a few of the more popular mistakes. They may seem intuitive, but you would be surprised how many references agree, these are killers.

Here are the highlights that were particularly helpful to me:

Proper punctuation:

I am always uncertain about the placement of commas and periods in relation to quotations, so I asked my mother for the official rules of placement. She said this as she wrote, “Its easy. Commas and periods are always inside the quotation marks.”

Parentheses (on the other hand), only contain punctuation when the punctuation applies specifically to the enclosed information. (This is why you put the period outside of citations.)

Proper word usage:

Take special care that your not confusing words. The big ones being:

• Its vs. It's (It is)
• There vs. their vs. they’re
• i.e. vs. e.g.
• Effect vs. affect
• Would of vs. would have

Any of these words can be easily substituted for their homophone when you have a deadline and are rushing, but beyond that, sometimes you are actually unsure of the correct choice.

• "i.e." means “that is” or “that is to say,” where as "e.g." means “for example,” but regardless when using either, be sure to include a period after the second letter
• Effect means “a result,” (e.g., cause and effect) where as affect means “to act on” (e.g., grass affects his asthma)
• Would of, could of, should of are all wrong. They come from improperly hearing would have or would’ve and transferring them to writing.