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She comes from Southern Spain The Seven Deadly Sins of Writing Note that British English avoids the comma before the last list item (before the 'and')

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The SevenWritingDeadly Sins©2015

page2 "Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words."-Mark Twain

The SevenWritingDeadly Sins©2015

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We all makemistakes, even professional writers (and writing coaches, for thatmatter). Someerrors, though, appear time and time again in letters, emails, businessreports andjob applications.Does it matter?Ifwe all makethe same mistakes,does anyone really care?OK,there are a few pedants out therewho moanaboutthefalling standards oftheEnglishlanguage.You"d think they could find something better to do.Well, maybe. But...Writing is all about communication, and howwesay things is just as important as themessage itself. If a speaker keeps stumbling over his words,he will (rightly orwrongly) give the impression he is hesitant or weak-a phenomenonperfectlydemonstrated in the filmThe King"s Speech.So it is with writing.Ourgrammar and punctuationmistakes will jar with somereaders, and give the impressionweare sloppy, uneducated, or simply don"t careabout them.Whether or not these things are true, ourerrorswill undermine ourmessage.In thisreport,I"ve done the research so you don"t have to. As well as trawlingthroughmy own experience as a writing coach, I"ve spoken tobusinessprofessionals,recruitersand blog readers.Hereare seven of the commonmistakesthat irritatereadersthe most, so you can recognise themand avoid them in your ownwriting.

Too many capital letters make a document hard to read. I"ve seen documents witheight capital letters in the first line, lookinglike a row of telegraph poles. Instead ofhighlightingcertain words,the effect is just overwhelming.The reason is that the 'rules" around capital letters are not set in stone, and are reallymore like guidelines.The followingwordsnormallystart with a capital letter.Normallywith capitalsExampleThe first wordat the start of asentence, including a direct quotewithin a sentenceShe said,"Bring me the handbag."Proper nouns(names, places)England, London,MaryShelley

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Normallywith capitals(...cont)ExampleNames ofcompanies, institutions,agenciesVirgin Atlantic,Debt ManagementOffice, the US GovernmentPoints of the compass when theyrefer to a specific geographical area-but not direction.He"s travelling to the East.She comes fromSouthern Spain.Scotland is north of England.Registered trademarksDiesel (jeans),Lycra, PersilAbbreviations of wordswith capitalsMP, MBA, MDTitles of books, newspapers, articlesetc (firstandlast words andminorwords over four letters)The Seven Deadly Sins of WritingOfficial titles preceding anameProfessor Smith, President ObamaAs a rule, thereasonforusing capitalsis todistinguisha unique,named thing, placeor personwhere there"s a risk of ambiguity. His jeans are made by Diesel (thecompany) as opposed todiesel(oil).The currentPresident as opposed to presidentsin general. We went to Lake Windermere, not just any old lake.If you"ve applied the guidelines above and you still aren"t sure,avoidusing capitals.

Run-ons aren"tjust overlong sentences(althoughthosecan be pretty annoyingaswell).A run-on sentence iswhen you have two independent clauses, or completethoughts,that aren"t separated by punctuation or a conjunction (ajoining word likeand, so, but, yet, for, or, nor).Run-on: This offer isfor a limited time only you must order by 30 June to takeadvantage of the great discount.Corrected: This offer is for a limited time only. You must order by 30 June totake advantage of the great discount.Run-on: Please feel free to contact me my direct line is printed at the top ofthis letter.

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Corrected: Please feel free to contact me. My direct line is printed at the topof this letter.For a related problem, see'the comma splice"in point 7 below.

This sounds very technical, but all it means is this:Subject-verb disagreement: Thebookareon the table.(Single subject,plural verb).Corrected: Thebookison the table.(Single subject, single verb)This error isactually a lot more common than you"d expect because complexsentence structurescanobscure the subject of the sentence.Takethis example:Disagreement: Promoting a book and marketing itisdifficult for authors.(Plural subject, single verb)Corrected:Promoting a book and marketing itaredifficult for authors. (Pluralsubject, plural verb)

Otherwise known as heterographic homophones, but don"t let that put you off.These words sound the same but are spelt differently and have differentmeanings-like there/their/they"re andtwo/too /to.They are common mistakes because spellchecker doesn"t pick them up.Othersound-alikesthat crop up frequently as errors are:adviceadviseelicitillicitlooselosechoosechoseaffecteffectacceptexcept

The SevenWritingDeadly Sins©2015

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stationarystationeryAhh...the dreaded apostrophe.I could write a whole book on theproblems this littlepunctuation mark causes.But let"s trytokeep it simple.Most people are OK with the apostrophethat signifies missing letters in contractions(shortened words) like aren"t, hasn"t, should"ve, let"s.The main problem is the possessive apostrophe, used to show ownership,sometimes with the letters.Misplaced apostrophe: Sallys" suitcases are in the hall.Misplaced apostrophe: Sallys suitcase"s are in the hall.Corrected: Sally"s suitcases are in the hall.How do you know which word and positionthe apostrophegoes in? There are a lotof different ways of remembering,butthismethodworksbestfor meandformost ofmy clients:First, reword the sentence with 'of" or 'belonging to" to identify the owner(s).The suitcasesof/belonging toSallyare in the hall. (The owner is the wordafter of/belonging to).Sallydoesn"t end insalready, so we add'sand plug it back into the originalsentence.Sally"s suitcases...So how about this one?The houses of/belonging to the residents are falling down.Here the owners (the residents) are plural and end insalready, so we just add anapostropheand drop the seconds.The residents" houses are falling down.Whydrop the s after the apostrophe? Because we don"t saythe residents"s.It justsoundswrong.

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Strictly speaking, usingjargon isn"tan error, but I"ve included it because it reallyannoys readers.It"s alsoveryeasy toforgetthatnot everybody knowsthe words you usedailyatwork. Iwaspulled up on this myselfrecentlywhen I was pitching for some writingskills trainingwith a potential client(kind of embarrassing...)I wrote:I faced similar problems with QA at my lastcompanyand at RD for thatmatter.The client replied with something along the lines of:I"m sure that"s very interesting, but I have noidea what you"re talking about.Few of your readers will give you such honest feedback. But trust me, if you"rewriting to the average citizen aboutguaranteed insurability options, leveragingassets, transferability, best-of-breed solutions or price/sales ratios, you"re notactuallycommunicating with at least 50% of them.Even within specialized industries, jargon can mean different things to differentpeople. Just because youmeanFSA to stand for Financial Services Authority (asopposed to Food Standards Agency,Federal Security Agency, Farm SecurityAdministration, Farm Service Agency, Fast Statistical Alignment...I could go on)canyou 100% guarantee your reader has the same understanding?Maybe you thinktheyshould, but that"s no guarantee.One of the most common objections I hear when I train people is,"But my reader willbe insulted if I explainthejargon."Really?I"venever met anyone who complained when a writer made the effort to explain anacronym or technical term. They just skim if they know it already. ButI do hear frommanypeople whosay theyresent jargon. So,if you want to connect with yourreader, avoid it, or explain it, just once, the first time you use it-like this:Pleaserefer tothe website of the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

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There are fourbasicrules about where to use commas, and none of themhasanything to do withpausing forbreath.You can find the rules on the Better WritingTips websitehttp://www.better-writing-tips.com/comma-rules.html.Commas separate bits of the sentence to avoid ambiguity.You canavoid themajority of comma mistakesbykeepingyour sentences short(15-20 words onaverage).Here are some of the most common mistakes:Missing commas:I like vanilla chocolate andcoffeeice cream.Corrected:I like vanilla, chocolate andcoffeeice cream.Note that British English avoids the comma before the last list item (before the 'and")but American English prefersit to be there.Comma splice: This offer is for a limited time only, you must order by 30June to take advantage of thegreat discount.Corrected: This offer is for a limited time only,andyou must order by 30June to take advantage of the great discount.Remember-you can"t join independent clauses in a single sentence with a comma.Commas aren"t sticky.Use a conjunction (joining word), a semicolonor a full stop(period).Misplaced comma: He said that eating, drinking and sleeping, were his mainhobbies.Corrected: He said that eating, drinking and sleeping were his main hobbies.

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Annoying or confusing your reader is not a good way to communicate. Poorpunctuation, spellingand grammarareperceived as lazy at best, disrespectful atworst. Not a good start if you"re applying for a job or trying to woo a customer.If you check your writing against these sevendeadly sins, I can"t guarantee yourdocument will be perfect. But you will have avoided some of themost commonpitfalls.Alan, Robert, ed.Pocket Fowler"s Modern English Usage, 2ndrev. ed. New York andOxford, England: Oxford University Press,2008Bly, Robert W.Webster"s New World Letter Writing Handbook, Indianapolis,Indiana:Wiley Publishing, Inc.,2004Venolia, Jan.Write Right, 4threv. ed. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press, 2001Seely, John.Oxford Guide to Effective Writing and Speaking, 2ndrev. ed . New Yorkand Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2005http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar: huge reference site for all thingsgrammatical.http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/free-guides.html: useful free guides on grammar,punctuation and jargon busters.http://www.better-writing-tips.com: this is myhobbysite and on it you"ll find freeadvice on punctuation, grammar,letter writing, business writing and more.Ialsoofferwriting servicessuch as proofreading and copywriting,trainingworkshops,elearningandone-to-one coachingin all aspects ofbusinesswriting.To find out more, visit mycommercial websitehttp://www.jakkibendell.co.ukor sendme an email atcontact@jbendell.com.

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The Seven DeadlyWritingSins©All rights reserved worldwide, 2015No part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted,or reproduced in any way,including but not limited to digital copying and printing.The author has made every effort to produce a high quality, informative and helpful report. But shemakes no representation or warranties of any kind with regard to the completeness or accuracy of thecontents of this report. She accepts no liability of any kind for any losses or damages caused oralleged to be caused, directly or indirectly, from using the information in this book.Text and images available over the Internet may be subject to copyright and other intellectual rightsowned by third parties. Some images copyright www.sxc.hu.Jakki BendellBrighton, UK

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