Oct
8
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When writing for the web either professionally or as a hobby then there is no point in doing it badly; it can have a massive impact on your credibility. In the past I have made countless mistakes myself and have only corrected them after extensive proof reading. The emergence of the web as a voice for the people has given rise to many publishing platforms such as Movable Type, Blogger and Wordpress, but the problem is that the web, with its relaxed atmosphere has no real quality control. In reality though, there is no excuse, as there are dozens of grammar reference guides available to download for free. Brian Clark has very cleverly outlined some of these mistakes in his blog (the Dangling Participle is particularly interesting).
Here are what I think are the top 10 grammar mistakes found on the web:
1. Web Site or Website
Or could be web page vs. webpage. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the correct usage is still 2 separate words. I use the expression still because many other sources such as the Free Online Dictionary of Computing refer to them as compound words, e.g., website and webpage. In the future I imagine all official references will include both uses.
2. E-mail or E-mails
This is a difficult one. Traditionally, the hyphen should be included but as with #1, popular usage will morph it into email. As for the plural, the correct usage is still e-mail. The problem is that for the majority, e-mails sounds correct, so it is often used, as in “I have a lot of e-mails in my inbox.” The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications also agrees with me.
3. SEOs or SEO’s
Unfortunately, this usage has no hard and fast rules. Some believe that capital letters used as words that contain no interior full-stops can be made plural by simply adding an s. However, lowercase letters do require an apostrophe and an s. According to this group, the apostrophe should never be used to denote plurals and SEOs is plural, so there you go. Brian Clark has also addressed apostrophe usage here to some degree.
4. Different than or Different from
Entities are different from one another, not different than. Some things are better than others, though.
5. Affect or Effect
Affect denotes an action; it is a doing word or verb, to act on; produce an effect or change in. Effect is a noun, something that is produced by an agency or cause; a result. The way to differentiate between these is to place “the” before the word. Verbs cannot have “the” before them.
6. e.g. or i.e.
Lets look at what these Latin terms actually mean:
The abbreviation e.g. stands for the Latin exempli gratia, (that’s “for example” to you and me). It is followed by one or more examples. A good way to think of it is as example given. “There are lots of blog platforms, e.g., Wordpress, Movable type, Blogger, Typepad.”
The abbreviation i.e. stands for the Latin id est, which means “that is.” It is followed by an explanation. “The number one search engine, i.e., Google, is a corporate giant.”
For both, place a full stop between each letter as they are abbreviations. If using within a sentence, always precede and follow with a comma.
7. Your or You’re
Your indicates possession, as in “Where is your overpriced iMac?”
You’re literally means “You are.” It is so simple yet so confused.
8. Could of, Would of, Should of
These are homophones, words that are pronounced the same as other words but differ in meaning. In actuality, they should be Could’ve, Would’ve and Should’ve, which means that they have been shortened to remove the “have.”
9. Hyphen usage
You can use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun, as in “a one-way street,” but when they come after a noun, it is not used: “The street was one way.” They can also be used with compound numbers, as in “Forty-seven.” They can be used to make clear the unifying of the sense in compound expressions such as pre-school or to avoid misunderstanding by distinguishing phrases such as a third-world conflict and a third world conflict.
Be careful though, the Oxford English Dictionary removes and adds hyphens with each new edition. See #2 above.
10. Semicolon usage
There are two ways to use this punctuation mark: as a connector between two sentences and as a super-comma.
If connecting a sentence then the 2 must be very close in context, as in “Blaze Technologies is an excellent company to invest in; its investments have risen sharply and steadily over each of the last ten years.”
You can use it as a super-comma to avoid confusion when writing lists, as in “Blaze Technologies has offices in: Reading, Berkshire; Northampton, Northants; Taunton, Somerset and London.”
I need to mention…
This is not a grammar issue really but I would like to approach it: How do you spell defence? Is it defense? What about colour? Or color? These are just 2 examples of spelling according to where your locality. I’m not going to get into the argument about wrong or right, I just think that you should consider who your audience are, especially if they reside in a different country. British or American? You decide.
Just a small note; in this text I use the Oxford English Dictionary as a reference, as it is the definitive record of the English language. The English language is constantly evolving and I’m sure that in the future some of these rules will become obsolete.
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3 Responses to “Top 10 Grammar Mistakes Found on the Web”
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I fink you’re talkin, rubish Mate, I can speel and talk proper I can!
I think that you are inaccurate. I can spell and speak using the Queens English. Is that what you meant? Of course Mr P, I appreciate your comment.
Nice website!!