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Todd -- how could you forget some all time favorites such as "loose" versus "lose" and "their" versus "there?" As the father of two teenagers, the lack of emphasis I see on corrent spelling and proper use of grammar in our schools really kills me. Thank God we older folks are still around for the time being to try to enforce the rules!

The worst is the seemingly increasing use of "loose" to mean "lose". As in, "I would like to have gone for a coffee, but I was worried that I'd loose my place in line..."

Also, I have to disagree with your pronunciation of "rapport". It's from the French, and is pronounced Ra-pour or Ra-porr.

I totally agree. Spelling things correctly is important. People might scan your content and ignore accidentally misspelled words. Not when it comes to "it's" and "its" though. It probably takes 5 minutes to check the grammar with word or a similar software.
Thanks for suggesting the Merriam-Webster search add-on, going to get that one immediately.

Your so right! I see apostrophe abuse all the time and its so frustrating! ;)

While we are on the topic let's toss out another gramurder with: irregardless.

Really? When I hear this or seer it I immediately shut off and do everything I can to stop myself from screaming "fraud!"

A peeve of mine is "premier" (first in rank) versus "premiere" (debut).

Can you make this a regular Monday morning post? Ever since Terry Fallis abandoned "Inside Proper English," I've been jonesing for something like this. Maybe you could tackle "further" and "farther" in your next installment.

Thanks, all, for the addtl examples. @Shel, given the quick & ferocious responses to-date, I just might do a semi-regular post like this one!

Great post Todd! I agree with Shel, can you make this a regular post? How about tackling i.e. versus e.g next week? That's my personal pet peeve.

Count me in as someone who who would be happy to listen to more of your Monday morning sermons, especially if they're about grammar. I especially appreciated the reminder about the difference between "loose" and "lose."

Yous all kvetch too much :P Eat, shoot and leave, will ya? Good post. Not saying I adhere, but good post.

Amen!

As important as grammar and spelling are to communication, whether it's with a reporter or client, what's your take on short communications via text, im, twitter or a smartphone? I know that when I'm writing a short email message using an iPhone (and I know the person relatively well), I tend to leave the apostrophe out of "its" and some contractions. Perhaps it's a bad assumption, but punctuations are a pain when using iPhone's predictive text, and I generally skip them. So "their." :)

Thoughts?

One of my personal bugbears is using an ampersand (&) instead of and. An ampersand should only be used when it is part of a name or official title and never use an ampersand instead of the word 'and' in text.

Sorry mate, but this grammar geek spotted "cool & important". :)

Brilliant post, Todd. Let's not forget the all-too-oft lapse into "text messaging speak." As in, "I found ur post 2day gr8!"

Kill me...kill me now. Who pays by the character anymore?

Hey there,

I tend to find the common CP Style mistake of the punctuation mark appearing outside the quotation marks, instead of inside.

She said, "I think blogs are groovy."

: )

How about knowing when to use "who" instead of "whom" (and vice versa.)

I love grammar! Thanks for the interesting post!

Ha, good one. I was just tweeting about this the other day (@kmigdal), but more about how people speak than write. My favorite meeting phrase is "flush it out" instead of "flesh it out." You want to flush a great idea down the toilet? Also, it's ET-cetera, not ECK-cetera. I heard a very smart man on NPR the other day repeatedly say "ECK." One of my other favorites is "coming down the pipe" instead of "coming down the pike." It's pike meaning road, like the Jersey Turnpike, not like the sewer pipe. Oh, and let's not forget "clink in my armor" instead of "chink in my armor."

@Jany:

Whenever sending a text message or using an application such as twitter, I use abbreviation marks to save space(w/out, &, bc), but I try not to leave out punctuation that changes the meaning of a word (its vs it's).

I agree completely. This is why at my college the public relations emphasis is under the journalism major. You are required to pass a class in grammar before you can start doing actual public relations work. I've heard from my classmates in the other disciplines that they don't see why a public relations student needs the same rigorous training as a journalist. It is because being a good writer is a prerequisite for playing in the game. Successful PRos need to know the fundamentals.

Spelling and grammar are hugely important! They show not only your general education level - maybe that sounds elitist or old fashioned, but it matters - but also the amount of time you put into revising what you wrote, which give me an idea of how much you care about me and what I think of you.

The one I've seen a lot of recently is "peaked my interest" or (worse yet) "peeked my interest." It's *piqued* my interest.

Also, the number of people who confuse "everyday" with "every day" also makes me crazy.

Hi Todd,

Remedial education in English usage isn't a waste of time or a sermon. It's overwhelmingly and obviously essential in PR. English (or any language) is worth writing well in for many reasons, not the least of which is your (or your company's) professional reputation. Ungrammatical communication certainly threatens credibility.

Ha ha, this reminds of "Friends," when Ross says exactly the same thing! "YOU'RE means you are... YOUR means YOUR!"

I love a good Friends quote!

"Bona fide" is the correct spelling. =)

Actually, Mark, I checked on that. It's an acceptable spelling. :)

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bonafide