Page 49 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

38 TODAY’S BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

grammar and writing blunders is to work constantly on your writing
skills. If you want to improve your skills beyond those we offer, then you
should consider using one or more of the resources in the following list.
Many colleges and universities have posted on their websites advice
about how students can avoid getting on teachers’ nerves with common
writing mistakes. Instead of developing our own lists of advice for you,
we have compiled a list of some great online resources that you should
bookmark.

• George Mason University’s advice on avoiding common
grammar mistakes is helpful. http://classweb.gmu.edu/WAC/
EnglishGuide/Critical/grammar.html
• Wisconsin University’s Writing Center’s advice on avoiding
12 common writing errors provides useful assistance.
http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/CommonErrors.html
• Westminster College’s list of avoidable mistakes is great for
novice and intermediate writers. http://www.westminster.edu/
staff/brennie/writerro.htm
• Purdue University’s online writing lab with exercises can help
you polish your command of English grammar and writing.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/

If the academic guides aren’t for you, then we also recommend the Gram-
mar Girl’s blog, which can be found at http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.
com/
We would be remiss if we did not recommend our favorite book on
style, The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. You
can pick up a copy of the book for less than $2 or you can find an edition
online at http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/style.html
And now, we present common grammar and writing blunders that
can damage your credibility.

Possessives and Contractions
In reality, these are two different but related issues. They are related by the
apostrophe. We may use apostrophes when using the possessive form of a
noun and when writing a contraction. For example, in the phrase, the cat’s
meow, the word “cat’s” is a possessive requiring an apostrophe. That is to