photo by CarbonNYC

With all the profound advances being made daily in social media and  communications technology, anyone want to venture a guess why I’m revisiting the land of bad grammar, poor word choices, misspellings and abused punctuation?

Here’s a hint. Effective communication is only going to grow in importance in both our personal and professional lives. I don’t care what you think you do. Communication skills are now on everyone’s short list.

If perception is frequently reality, then the perception that you don’t know what you’re talking about because your writing is filled with easily corrected errors is one you need to avoid at all costs.

As much as I’d love to write an exhaustive resource list for you on this subject (insert sarcastic emoticon here), the good news is that everyone and her sister already has done it. A search of the phrase “common writing mistakes” turns up nearly 20,000 results on Google. Don’t bother sifting through them all; the following should answer most if not all of your questions. Commit them to heart and at least the writing errors that remain in your deathless prose should be a bit more esoteric.

SoYouWanna Avoid Common Writing Errors?

Common Writing Mistakes

Top Ten Common Writing Mistakes

Ten Common Writing Mistakes Your Spell Checker Won’t Find

Do You Make These 7 Mistakes When You Write?

Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb

Common Mistakes of English Grammar, Mechanics, and Punctuation

photo by edu_phon

I’ve decided to expand my normal 10 tweets to 20 from now on because there’s just too much good stuff to share each month. Running through the list of the most popular links I posted on Twitter last month is almost like a Rorschach test that helps me take a dip into the minds of those following me there. My main takeaway is that people are hungry for good, actionable information on communications in general and social media specifically.

So in case you missed any of these the first time around, here in order are the tweets that drew the most attention:

PR Gaffe Delivers Unintended National Press

How to Astonish Your Audience With Statistics

10 Best Practices in Social Media for Nonprofits

Aspire to This: an Example of a Great Website

8 Twitter Habits That May Get You Unfollowed or Semi-Followed

Emotional Messaging Works; Rational Messaging Hurts

5 Fresh Ideas for Social Media Marketers

Why Don’t Tweens Tweet? We Asked Over 10,000 of Them

Are You Antisocial in Your Social Media Efforts?

How to Tell Your Story in 100 Words or Less

ROI of Listening: 17 Things to Do With What You Hear

Your Web Site: Less is More. Really.

Being Helpful is the New Black

10 Common Writing Mistakes Your Spell Checker Won’t Find

73 Ways to Become a Better Writer

Time for a Twitter Reality Check

Your Company is a Media Company

45% of Employers Use Social Networking Sites to Research Job Candidates

A Child’s First Hitchcock: Psycho

What’s So Scary About Marketing Strategy?

Check out any you may have missed last month on Twitter. There’s lots of good food for thought in this list (although my favorite, A Child’s First Hitchock, is just for fun … great storytelling example, though).

Enjoy!

A few years ago writing consultant Judy Rose put together this list of common word use errors, and unfortunately it holds up very well today. If you’re one of those people who’s not sure whether it’s it’s or its, you’re or your or who’s or whose, print this one out and stick it next to your PC.

If everyone who made the errors identified in Rose’s list were to correct them, editors everywhere would breathe a huge sigh of relief.

photo by daquella manera

I’ll admit it. Anytime I see “professional” writing that includes misspelled words, bad grammar or misused punctuation, I wince. I recognize that in the new Democratic Republic of Social Media, there are those who shrug off such errors. “The important thing is that people are getting out there,” they say. “They shouldn’t be intimidated by their lack of writing skills.”

Lord knows I wouldn’t want to intimidate anyone, but … uh, no. If you didn’t master sixth-grade English class, hire someone who did. Or work to improve your own abilities. Good communication is best done by professionals. When my pipes leak, I hire an experienced plumber, not some guy who’s enthusiastic and has decided to “get out there” and do a little plumbing.

Sounds a bit snotty, coming from a so-called communications pro? Maybe, but consider this: Every misspelled word, misplaced comma and badly crafted sentence says something about you, whether writing is part of your job description or not. It says, “I’m not much for detail,” or, “I’m pretty casual about this quality control stuff.” Your poor writing suggests that maybe there are other things you’re a bit sloppy at. Like your plumbing.

It’s not just communications, of course. Everything you do says something about your work ethic, organizational culture, quality of service, etc. Your brand grows out of every point of contact you have with your stakeholders or customers.When I see your poor communication, I wonder what else you’re not so great at. And that should worry you.