Writing Tips, Correct Form of the Word

Today the BBC has an article on some of President George W Bush's worst quotes, which makes for hilarious reading, but also reminded me to jot down some thoughts for writers who want to improve their communication, and just maybe, increase your earnings per article on sites such as DP, Webmaster-Talk, or Netbuilders.

Without wasting any time on puffery, let's get straight into the words I often see native and non-native speakers alike use incorrectly.

Confusing your and you're, this annoys me considerably when I see native speakers doing it. Your means that the object of the sentence belongs to the subject, for example, 'your house has a blue roof'. By contrast, you're is the contracted form of you are, and would be used 'you're a handsome devil'.

Incorrectly using there or their, which is understandable to some extent, the two words sound identical, however there refers to a location that is not here, for example 'you parked your car over there'. Their is a word that means the object belongs to the subjects and is the plural form of your, for example 'their children look just like them'.

Another case of confusing a word because they sound alike, aloud and allowed, with aloud meaning audible as opposed to silent, for example 'he read his poetry aloud for all to hear'. Compare this with allowed which menas that permission has been given, 'Tommy was allowed to play outdoors'.

Finally, here's an easy one to use, quite and quiet, which are not the same despite having the same characters rearranged. Quite is an adverb that gives extra emphasis or suggests something is similar but not exactly the same, for example 'I'm quite sure', or 'It isn't quite what I'm looking for'. Whereas quiet is the opposite of loud, 'the music was very quiet and I struggled to hear it'.

Little mistakes like I've highlighted above really trip up a writer who hopes to increase their earnings, after all, buyers like to employ writers who don't make mistakes. It means they don't have to worry too much about proof-reading, they definitely don't need to pay for editing services, and best of all, if you do a good job they tend to quick to recommend a good writer to their friends.