Editing Made Easy, for Companies

The Top 50 Writing Mistakes and How to Fix Them in 10 Seconds or Less

Are your employees spending hours searching through dense style manuals? Are you sick of fixing mistakes like “their” instead of “they’re”? Are you tired of guides that require associates to know the difference between a transitive and intransitive verb?

This easy-to-read checklist points out the 50 most common writing mistakes and how to fix them quickly and with as little effort as possible. It is written in plain English for the layperson, not the grammar expert, with mistakes listed in alphabetical order rather than by formal definition. That means it’s easy to search for the term in question. It also contains straightforward, humorous examples that will help your employees understand the problem and how to fix it almost instantaneously.

For example,

Complement, compliment

That bowtie really complements your Western shirt and mustache.

Wow, thanks for the compliment, Axl.

Trick to remember: I like to get compliments (spelled with an “I”).

Their, they’re, there

    
        Their
        Shows possession
      	Test: Replace “their” with “our”
    

      	They're
        Combines the words “they” and “are 
        Test: Replace “they’re” with “they are”
    
There
        Names a place or a thing or existence of something
        Test: Replace “there” with “here”

Example: Their YouTube video of Winston breakdancing is going to be an internet sensation.

Example: They’re going to surprise him with a pie in the face at midnight.

Example: There is a shortage of snoring dog videos online.

This guide draws on my experience over the past decade editing for big magazines, book publishers, tech sites, and marketing companies. I’ve seen writers make the same mistakes time and again at places like Texas Monthly, Women’s Health, Gigaom, and more.

Don’t let these easy-to-fix problems undermine your credibility or take time away from the real work. Buy the guide today!