Good grammar is crucial in business writing because mistakes can be costly. That’s why many corporations and other organizations invest time, energy, and money in English lessons. Avoiding grammatical errors in business writing will help you with your objectives.
A poorly written business text can mean the difference between landing a new client and losing one. That’s why it is important always to improve your English writing skills.
Certain grammatical errors often appear in white papers, memoirs, press releases, and other types of business writing. These errors can put your organization into jeopardy. That’s why it is crucial to avoid these grammatical errors.
How can you get better at writing? Practice and be aware of these ten common grammatical errors in your business writing.
1. It’s vs Its
Too many professionals make this grammatical error. They confuse the possessive “Its” for the contracted form “It’s.”
How to avoid this grammatical error.
A good rule is the following: Always substitute the word for “It is.” If the sentence makes sense, that means the contractive form is the correct one. If not, then you are dealing with a possessive.
Example:
“It’s raining outside.”
Can we substitute “It’s” for “It is”?
“It is raining outside.”
Yes, the sentence makes sense.
Can we do the same in the following sentence?
“It’s car used to be admired.”
Let’s test it.
“It is car used to be admired.”
Read the sentence out loud. Does it make sense? Not really. That means that it is the possessive form of “Its” and not the contractive form of “It’s.” The correct sentence spells:
“Its car used to be admired.”
2. Affect vs Effect
This is another confusing pair of words critical in business writing. A reason why it made this top ten was its often occurrence in business texts and the two terms’ importance in the business world.
How to avoid this grammatical error
The simple way to avoid the error is to always remember that “affect” means to “act on or to produce a change,” whereas “effect” means “a result or a consequence.”
Thus,
“The effect of the reform was seen only after two years.” (“The result of the reform was seen after two years.”)
And
“As a politician, he has affected the lives of so many people.” (“As a politician, he has changed the lives of so many people.”)
From a grammatical point of view, “effect” is a noun and “affect” is a verb. However, do not be fooled by their grammatical functions. Sometimes, “affect” can be a noun.
“The young man’s facial expressions had a humorous affect.”
In this sentence, “affect” is a noun and refers to the young man’s facial expression. Use “Affect” this way primarily in psychology contexts to refer to the facial expressions, gestures, postures, vocal intonations, etc.
3. Other incorrect word choices and misused words
Although confusions between “Its” and “It’s” or between “Affect” and “Effect” often appear in business writing, other words may be as confusing as these. Avoid such errors if you wish to improve your English writing skills.
An often occurrence in business writing is the incorrect usage of “Your” and “You’re.” Also, many confuse among “Their,” “There,” and “They’re.” While the words presented here sound alike, they bear completely different meanings.
How to avoid this grammatical error.
“Your” and “You’re” work in a similar way to “Its” and “It’s.”
While one is a contraction of two words, the other is a possessive form. To test which version is the correct one, you will need to perform a substitution test.
“You’re” means “You are.” So, if you can make the substitution, then you have a contracted form.
For example, we write
“You’re on the reservation list for two persons.”
Here, we can substitute ‘You’re’ for ‘You are’ and still have a meaningful sentence.
Thus:
‘You are on the reservation list for two persons.’
Is a meaningful English sentence.
However, we cannot make the substitution in the following case:
“You’re booking was canceled yesterday.”
If we substitute ‘You’re’ for ‘You are,’ we get
“You are booking was canceled yesterday.”
It doesn’t make sense in English. The correct form here is a possessive one.
“Your booking was canceled yesterday.”
In the case of “There,” “Their,” and “They’re”, note the following
- “Their” is the possessive form, just like “Its” and “Your.”
- “They’re” is the contracted form for “They are,” just like “It’s” and “You’re.”
- “There” is just a dummy subject, like “It,” that postpones the real subject.
4. Overuse of jargon and complex language
The simpler, the better. If you want to improve your English writing skills, there is no better way than to rewrite sentences into simpler versions.
Good business writing requires brevity. It also requires you to go directly to the point.
Sometimes, your reader does not understand professional language; that’s why you must “translate” what you are trying to say.
How to fix this grammatical error
Simply read your text out loud. If the ideas present on the piece of paper, or on the monitor, are easy to understand, you have a simple text that can be read by clients and professionals alike.
Look for words that are often used by professionals and substitute them with everyday phrases.
5. Subject-Verb Agreement Errors
Is it
“The team is responsible for the outputs.”
Or
“The team are responsible for the outputs”?
Grammatical errors of this type come in many different forms. The core idea is that the subject must agree in number and person with the verb.
We can all understand and judge the following sentence to be correct
“He was a great athlete in high school.”
And we can sense the error in
“She am a lovable women.”
without needing to know the grammar rules.
Of course, more problematic cases, in which working grammar knowledge can come in handy, exist. But if you are a busy professional who doesn’t aspire to become an English teacher, you are looking for a solution on the spot.
How to fix this grammatical error
One test that you can perform is the substitution test. See which pronoun works best for the subject, and then see if the agreement with the main verb is the correct one.
“The man with a large suit and a black pair of shoes is the new CEO of that company.”
Look at the sentence and identify the subject and the verb.
The verb is, here, “Is,” and everything that comes before it represents the subject.
“The man with a large suit and a black pair of shoes” is the subject of the sentence.
What is the subject talking about? A man who happens to have a large suit and a black pair of shoes. We are dealing with a “He,” a third-person, singular pronoun.
Thus, the substituted sentence will be
“He is the new CEO of the company.”
In this case, the subject-verb agreement is correct. However, a different article will have to be dedicated to the subject at hand. For now, remember the importance of subject-verb agreement.
6. Misplaced modifiers
One of the most common grammar mistakes in business writing is the misuse of modifiers.
What are they, and how do they affect your writing?
Look at the following example
“Nervous, anxious, and angry, the company’s representative helped the customer calm down.”
If you read this sentence quickly, you may grasp what the sentence is about: a client who is nervous, anxious, and angry, and he is being helped by a representative.
While you may read the sentence in this way, that’s not what the sentence is about.
No, it is about a representative who is nervous, anxious, and angry …
Dangling modifiers can sometimes be funny, yet other times, dangerous. Be careful how you construct your sentences because not everyone reads the way you do.
How to fix this grammatical error
The rule states that you need to keep related words together. This means that the modifying phrase needs to be as close as possible to the phrase it is modifying
In our example, we could write
“The company’s representative helped the nervous, anxious, and angry customer calm down.”
Now, it is clear who was nervous, anxious, and angry. It wasn’t the company’s representative, but the client.
7. Usage of the Passive Voice
What is the difference between the following two sentences?
- The client demanded a refund.
- The refund was demanded by the client.
Although both seem to communicate the same message, one is more concise than the other – a).
But why is that so?
Good business writing is bold. It carries the message directly, without hiding behind passivity. It tells exactly who does what. Also, sentences in the active voice are often shorter, which gives it extra conciseness.
How to fix this grammatical error
Look at the sentence. Is it too lengthy? Is it too passive in its action? Then you may be dealing with a passive construction. See if the subject of the verb is a person or object that actually does actions in the real world or rather something more passive.
In our example,
- The refund was demanded by the client.
“The refund” is clearly something that is acted upon. In this case, we need to see who is doing the action. Here, the client appears to be doing the action, so we can turn the sentence into
- The client demands a refund.
Caution! Not every passive sentence needs to be converted into an active one. Sometimes, the object affected by the action is required to be placed as the subject because the doer is unknown or simply irrelevant. Still, bold, concise writing requires the use of the active voice.
8. Run-on sentences
If you are not familiar with the notion, remember that a run-on sentence consists of two or more sentences that are punctuated as one.
For example, we have the following two sentences
- The meeting begins in one hour.
- Tim will hold the presentation today.
These are two grammatically correct English sentences. However, if we were to make one sentence out of them, without following the correct punctuation, we would get the following
- The meeting begins in one hour Tim will hold the presentation today.
While some will understand what you meant, most people will be confused by your string of words. Not only will what you say be unclear, but the reader will remain puzzled about what you are trying to communicate.
How to fix this grammatical error
One solution would be to leave the two sentences as they are, separated. However, if you consider that the flow will improve, then you can connect the two sentences using a colon or a semicolon.
- The meeting begins in one hour; Tim will hold the presentation today.
A colon is useful if we consider that the second sentence amplifies the first one.
- The meeting begins in one hour: Tim will hold the presentation today.
See how the understanding of the sentence changes?
Of course, you can fix the issue by using a conjunction, such as and, or, nor, yet, etc.
- The meeting begins in one hour, and Tim will hold the presentation today.
As you can see, choices are many choices if you want to avoid this grammar mistake. It’s up to you to consider which is best for your purposes.
9. Pronoun-antecedent agreement
Another error that can bring confusion and embarrassment is the (lack of) pronoun-antecedent agreement. While many consider that grammatical disagreements can only exist between subjects and main verbs, nothing could be further from the truth.
“Every manager must ensure that their team meets all deadlines.”
At first glance, you may say that this sentence is fine. You can read it and understand it. In fact, you may not even grasp the error. This is why it is important to improve your English writing skills, and you can do it by understanding and correcting various grammatical errors.
In this sentence, we have two pronouns: “every” and “their.” The problem is that the two should agree in number and person. While both are in the third person, the first is a singular pronoun while the second is a plural.
This can be confusing when reading an important business document. Pronoun disagreement often translates as incoherence from the side of the writer.
How to fix this grammatical error
Instead, you should write it in one of the following two ways:
- All managers must ensure that their team meets all deadlines.
- Every manager must ensure that his or her team meets all deadlines.
This way, we get a clear view of who we are referring to.
10. Improper apostrophe usage
The last grammatical error on our list has to do with the improper use of the apostrophe. Although not being a difficult rule to follow, this error is often made in the world of business.
We use the apostrophe to show possession. That’s the role of the sign in English; still, many commit the following two mistakes:
- They do not use it properly to form the possessive.
- They use it to form the plural form of a word.
Some may write:
“We are meeting at the Johns’s house.”
to mean that they are meeting at the house where the family John resides.
This is, of course, an incorrect usage of the apostrophe.
Others, from knowing too well the rules of forming the possessive, may write
“Womens’ rights are important in this company.”
The person knows that for the plural form, the apostrophe goes after the –s. However, what the person doesn’t realize is that the rule applies only when the plural form of the word ends with –s.
A more worrying error has to do with the formation of the plural. Too many believe that using the apostrophe is the proper way of forming the plural.
Thus, some have written “lapto’s” instead of “laptops” or “phone’s” instead of “phones.”
How to fix this grammatical error
The simplest piece of advice is to know the rules for using the apostrophe and practice them.
We place the apostrophe after the word only if the word ends in –s: kids’, girls’, boys’, etc. If the word ends in any other letter, it is advised to place the apostrophe before the –s: men’s, women’s, children’s, etc.
Never use “’s” to form the plural of a word. That is simply wrong.
Improve Your English Writing Skills and Stop Committing These Grammar Mistakes
A well-written business text can make a difference. People look at how others write to judge the person’s integrity, professionalism, and reliability. A business text with many grammatical errors will never leave a good impression.
These are just ten of the most common grammatical errors that you should avoid. For others, continue reading our blog and subscribe to our newsletter.
