(This was actually an article about resume writing in Vault magazine) but it holds true for our daily writing as mystery shoppers:

1. Accept/Except

To accept is to receive something. She accepted his apology. Except is a preposition that means but or with the exception of. I would use accept, except it is not the correct word.

2. Affect/Effect

To "affect" is to influence or change. He affected her emotions. An "effect" is the result of something, as in cause and effect. Typically, affect is a verb, and effect is noun.

3. And/Or

This usage implies three outcomes, not two. I will write a resume and/or a cover letter means that the person will either: (1) write a resume; (2) write a resume and a cover letter; or (3) write a cover letter.

4. Assure/Ensure/Insure

To "assure" is to convince or to guarantee. The administrator assured him that his resume had been received. "Insure" means to guard against loss. I insured my car. "Ensure" means to make certain. I ensured that I insured my car.

5. It's/Its

This is one of those cases that is an exception to the rule. While the apostrophe typically denotes a possessive, in this case, "it's" means it is, and "its" is the possessive.

6. Their/There/They're

"Their" is a possessive; something belongs to them and it is theirs. "There" is where something is; it is over there. "They're" is where they are; they're (they are) over there.

7. Then/Than

"Then" is when something will happen and means next or consequently. I will go to the store and then go home. "Than" indicates a difference. Chocolate is better than vanilla.

8. To/Too/Two

"To" is a function word indicating an action or process. I want to write my resume. "Too" indicates an excessive amount of something. I am too tired to write my resume. "Two" is the number that follows one and precedes three.

9. Utilize

"Utilized" means use. Use "use" and not utilize.

10. Whose/Who's

"Whose" is a possessive. Whose resume is it? "Who's" means who is. Who's at the door?

11. Your/You're

"Your" is a possessive. It is your turn. "You're" means you are. You’re correct.

For more commonly misused words, there's a great list over at Oxford Dictionaries. Another option is to conduct an online search for "commonly confused words" and you'll find plenty of results to choose from.

[www.vault.com]

Thanks for the English lesson... it was fun, or do I mean its fun?

Its fun would be wrong. It would be it's as in it is .

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2016 05:46PM by nhgirl1970.

One I've had trouble with in the past was isle (island) vs aisle (grocery store).

I frequently see people say they PAYED a bill....and ask what classes to take in COLLAGE to get a specific degree.....now if you are going to college, you should be able to spell the word.

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

5. It's/Its

This is one of those cases that is an exception to the rule. While the apostrophe typically denotes a possessive, in this case, "it's" means it is, and "its" is the possessive.

I see this often. His, hers, its. No apostrophes. Do schools no longer teach grammar?

Very good post SunnyDays. Jogs the mind.

Whose line is it anyway or who's line is it

The easiest way to remember several of these is that the apostrophe takes the place of some other letter. It's (it is), they're (they are), who's (who is). I had a lot of trouble remembering the difference between it's/its.

Another one is me/I. It is NOT "She gave it to Tom and I." The trick here is to think of if you would use me or I alone. "She gave it to me." (NOT She gave it to I.)

@Kakita987 wrote:

The easiest way to remember several of these is that the apostrophe takes the place of some other letter. It's (it is), they're (they are), who's (who is). I had a lot of trouble remembering the difference between it's/its.

Another one is me/I. It is NOT "She gave it to Tom and I." The trick here is to think of if you would use me or I alone. "She gave it to me." (NOT She gave it to I.)

Or, "Tom and I decided to go to the movies."

Not, "Me and Tom decided to go to the movies."

Or I will EXPECT you to behave nicely, EXCEPT on Wednesdays

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2016 01:24PM by sojo917.

@PasswordNotFound wrote:

I see this often. His, hers, its. No apostrophes. Do schools no longer teach grammar?

No, they don't. But I'm confused by your mention of his and hers. These never take apostrophes. Or are you saying that you see them misused often?

And, this thread is the reason my signature line is what it is.

@sojo917 wrote:

Or I will EXPECT you to behave nicely, EXCEPT on Wednesdays

I HATE it when I see something like, "No $100 bills excepted."

Why, yes, I'll accept them all if they're not excepted from being used as payment.

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

(This was actually an article about resume writing in Vault magazine) but it holds true for our daily writing as mystery shoppers:

There was an article in Mystery Shopper Magazine awhile back with a lot of the same information, too.

@BirdyC wrote:

I'm confused by your mention of his and hers. These never take apostrophes. Or are you saying that you see them misused often?

It's a way for people who get confused to remember (I'm not one of them.) He/she/it are related because they're pronouns.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2016 11:22PM by PasswordNotFound.

@PasswordNotFound wrote:

It's a way for people who get confused to remember (I'm not one of them.) He/she/it are related because they're pronouns.

Oh, yes, now I get it. It's a way for people to remember that the possessive of its follows the same form as the possessives of he and she! One would hope people could remember that. Sometimes, though, I wonder....

I've seen many mistakes like these made not only by schedulers, but also by editors. I have a good one. I worked for a pulmonologist who spelled "phlegm" as "flem". I was too embarrassed to point out the mistake.

The mistake that really bugs me is the confusion in the words, eager and anxious. I hear them misused on TV on the radio and in newspapers. The best explanation for these two words with 'excited' thrown in, are these 3 sentences.

I am excited to get my package in the mail.
I am eager for my trip to the Bahamas.
I am anxious that this airplane will crash.

Other than the misuse of its/it's, you're/your, there/their/they're, my biggest pet peeve is the abuse of apostrophes! People use them to make words plural, and don't use them to form a possessive. It's so rampant that I wonder if schools are teaching this rule upside down!

Shop guidelines are notorious for this: "Note the associates reaction." Nope.

Call ahead to get the stores hours. Double nope.

I think if MSCs want shoppers to use proper grammar (which we should, of course), they should use it, too! They should hold themselves to the same standard to which they hold us. (And make sure they hold their editors to it as well.)

There's one shop I'm taking a break from doing because the outrageous grammar and spelling errors spread throughout all of the shop materials were making me bang my head on my desk every time I read them. Seriously....

Just switching these up, changes the meaning quite a bit:


I am excited to get my package in the mail.
I am eager for my trip to the Bahamas.
I am anxious that this airplane will crash.


I am dubious about getting my package in the mail on time.
I am dreading my trip to the Bahamas.
I am excited to hear that this airplane will crash soon.

The most often incorrect representation of a word I see about every day is "your." People constantly mix up the possessive and the contraction. For example: Let me know when your available. It should be "you're" It is so easy to sort this out by substituting you are into the sentence. It is a really easy fix to stop using contractions if you don't know which spelling to use. This will work for its/it's and all other contractions as well.

Here's the one that bugs me and is used often right here on the forum..using "of" where it should be "have.".ie. I "should of" asked for a higher bonus....instead of I "should have."

The thing is, spell-check won't catch many of these common errors we're posting, in addition to the original list. It generally can't read context. When a shopper posts something to the effect that he or she was marked down on grammar and spelling, but "I ran it through spell-check," my first thought is, "That's probably why there were mistakes." Assuming that the spell-check was used as the final proofreading pass.

I use spell-check, but as a quick first pass through a document. It'll catch many spelling errors, assuming the word(s) isn't a homophone with another word.

Also, spell-check will mark as an error something that's correct. It's always telling me that my semi-colons are wrong. When they're not. I don't think it understands colons and semi-colons very well.

But nothing substitutes for good old-fashioned "eyeball" proofing.

Spell-check can be useful, but don't trust it! It's sneaky.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2016 01:29PM by BirdyC.

I see all the above-mentioned spelling issues frequently. Many people routinely make those mistakes with words and think they are right. I see these errors all the time in posts on our forum. I'm not so much bothered by seeing the mistakes, but what really bothers me is when someone posts an angry vent about an editor who gave them a low score on a report due to spelling errors. The angry person posts that he KNOWS the editor is either wrong or dishonest because he had NO spelling errors and "I know for a FACT that my spelling was perfect because I have spell check."

When writing a report, I go over every sentence correcting immediately, where on the forum, I don't bother since I'm not getting paid. I don't judge folks here for a typo error, it's more about the content.

How about the one that appears in too many MSC's guidelines for shops? Discreet implies the showing of reserve and prudence in one's behavior or speech. Doing things in a way that does not draw attention to oneself. Discrete means something quite different: “distinct, separate, unrelated."