Beyond Spell Check

"Never use two words when one will do." - Thomas Jefferson
"Never use two words when one suffices." - David Burd

Most of us use two forms of our native language: conversational and business. The differences can be dramatic at times, but even slipping minor conversational standards into business documents can be downright embarrassing.

There are simple rules of spelling, grammar and punctuation that the better word processors are designed to point out to you. Some errors are corrected automatically, but many have to be corrected by the user.

The importance of proper word usage cannot be understated. Often, your document or letter is the first or only instrument that represents your business. If the grammar is poor or words are misspelled, how confident is a potential client going to be in the way you conduct the other aspects of your business? Your professional demeanor must be held to high standards.

Also, language translation programs are inaccurate enough without having to contend with the additional problem of having misused language to translate. In fact, it is prudent to avoid contractions when writing for an international audience.

Another consideration of using words properly is that we are all responsible for the preservation of the heritage of our language. I will refer here to English, my native language. Beowulf, written more than 1,000 years ago, is the earliest known example of English in print. Its opening line reads:
"Hw�?t! We Gardena in geardagum, �?eodcyninga�?"

In today's English, this translates to:
"Lo! we have heard about the might of the Spear-Danes' kings in the early days."

If we strive to preserve today's English, our thoughts and literature will be much more understood and appreciated a thousand years from now.

Use of your word processor's spell check function will not capture a misused word if it is nonetheless spelled correctly. This is why it is so important to know the difference between "lose" and "loose," or "went" and "gone."

Here are some very common mistakes:

• of / have - As in "I should have done that," not "I should of done that."
• went / gone - As in "He should have gone," not "He should have went."
• lose / loose - "Lose" refers to a loss. "Loose" refers to not being tight.
• further / farther - "Farther" refers to physical distance (think "far"). "Further" is non-physical distance.
• couldn't care less / could care less - If you "could care less," you are saying that you give importance to the subject. If you give no importance to a subject, you "could not care less."
• its / it's - "It's is a contraction of "it is." "Its" is a possessive pronoun, a rare example of omitting the apostrophe in such a case.