Writing in the English Language

If you use the English language to communicate, you are probably aware of its many grammatical rules (that all seem to have exceptions) and the spellings of many of the words you use. However, you may be one of those people who chooses to ignore these necessary parameters when writing, or even worse, you are actually blissfully unaware of how you are supposed to be using the language! If so, stop ignoring the rules of your language.

Writing properly is not an activity you do just for your English class; it is the way to communicate most effectively with others. If you want other people to read what you have to say or take you seriously, it is important to use correct spelling and grammar. Otherwise, you may confuse your readers (especially those who are not native speakers) or cause them to develop a poor impression of you.

So, what can you do? Well, I have created a list of common errors that I frequently see on others’ websites, and I am going to explain how these errors can be corrected. Continue reading if you think you may be committing any of these crimes against the English language.

“i don’t have to capitalize i if i don’t want to.”

Yes, you do. The pronoun “I” is to be capitalized. Don’t be lazy. Hit the shift key; it’s not very difficult. Don’t you think that you’re important enough to capitalize the pronoun referring to you anyway?

I would also like to extend this topic to those who choose never to capitalize any words. You should. Capitalize the first letter of each sentence. Proper nouns should be uppercase, too. By proper nouns, I mean things like people’s names, countries, brand names – anything that is not just a regular thing that you could find anywhere.

“Definitely” does not have an A in it.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. So many people misspell the word “definitely,” and it seems as if these misspellings spread like fire because people do not correct them, and I am sure that many of them do not know that they are spelling it incorrectly. Well, if you have ever spelled it in any of the following ways, you were wrong: definately, definitly, defiantly, definitley, defenately… or any other variation that is not definitely. I would also like to point out that “defiantly” is a completely different word, and yes, I have seen people use it when they could only mean “definitely.”

Punctuation is your friend.

There is absolutely no need to try to communicate all of your thoughts without separating them with punctuation. I have attempted to read blogs in which the writer did not use commas, which made following individual sentences difficult. I have read blogs without periods, which made the thoughts impossible to follow. Punctuate. Otherwise, your writing becomes difficult to understand.

Separate your ideas.

The <p> tag exists for a reason. You can easily separate different thoughts into different paragraphs. It is much easier to follow a blog or an article if each idea is separate from the others. Once you’re done talking about one topic, move on to the next in a different paragraph. There is no need to have obscenely huge blocks of text on your website.

It’s okay if you’re not good at spelling.

There is spell check for that. Some Internet browsers have a spell check too built-in (Mozilla Firefox, for example), so that if you are typing and you misspell a word, the ugly red underline will appear under the misspelled word. Right-click and a list of suggestions appears, just like it does when you spell something wrong in your word processing program.

Keep in mind that this list does not cover every mistake that people make in their writing. As you have probably realized, the English language is far too complex to describe and explain in a single page. There is no need to know everything about grammar and spelling, but at the very least, it is important to keep the basics in mind. But if you really want to break the rules (perhaps for some kind of creative purpose), remember first to demonstrate that you do, indeed, know how to write properly.