What’s wrong with this sentence? “As interest in keeping her healthy increases, it bodes well for companies to do their part—for their customers, employees and their bottom line.” The writer got a little confused about the theirs, I guess. They didn’t need that second their before bottom line. It’s clutter. Plus it’s weird to put their before customers and bottom line but not before employees. That makes it seem like the employees could work for any company, I guess. The sentence is better without the extra their because it’s both...
I had an attack of acute gastritis a while back, although I didn’t know it at first. I thought I had a severely upset stomach, that’s all, although I was in a lot of pain and sleeping a lot. On the evening of the second day, I finally Googled my symptoms to learn it was acute gastritis. As much as I appreciated finding the information I needed so I could treat the ailment, I was distressed to see this crazy use of commas on a medical website: “There are several different types of acute gastritis. This is due to the fact that the...
In the past week, I have seen the word myself misused two times in business writing, so I am interpreting that as a message from the grammar gods that we need to address it in a Monday’s Mistake. Here’s one of the mistakes I saw: “After you get the information, send it to John and myself.” Do you see what is wrong with the sentence? It should say me, not myself: “After you get the information, send it to John and me.” If the writer hadn’t included John, do you think he would have written this? “After you get the information, send it...
Do you see the punctuation error in this sentence? (And yes, the word punctuation is a hint.) “This historical fiction series accurately depicts the time of London during the 1920’s and 1930’s.” Those apostrophes don’t belong. It’s not the 1920’s and 1930’s. It’s the 1920s and 1930s. We don’t use apostrophes to make words plural, as I’ve said elsewhere. But I’ll say it again: Don’t use apostrophes to make words plural. Don’t use apostrophes to make words plural. Don’t use apostrophes to make words plural. No, this...
This Monday’s Mistake relates to our new Guide to Punctuation, but also to the ever-important rule to choose clarity! Here’s the sentence: “The digital front-end (website, app, store, etc.) and the back-end (like customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resources planning (ERP) and billing systems) need to sync with each other.” Do you see a problem with it? I do: confusion. Technically, the writer used parentheses correctly, but they lost the clarity. The poor reader has to work to get through this forest of...
These Monday Mistakes just keep showing up! I’m not sure if that makes me happy or sad. For example, consider this online ad that showed up on my laptop screen this week. Do you see the error? It should say, “It matters whom you travel with.” Do you struggle to remember when to use whom instead of who? Here’s help… My oldest, who is following in my footsteps and taking over www.weknowwords.com for his freelance proofreading business, gave me a simple way to remember: If he or she is the correct pronoun,...
