Business Writing

Lesson 1: Why is Writing Important in Business?

Homonyms, Apostrophes and Grammatical Case

Being aware of which homonyms to look out for is important when proof reading. Many people aren't actually sure which of these common words are supposed to go where. Confusion often occurs between 'there', 'their' and 'they're'.

'There' is used to describe a position, eg: "The book is over there."

'Their' means 'belonging to them'. "That is their book."

'They're' is an abbreviation for 'they are'. "They're looking for the book."

Many writers confuse 'to', 'too' and 'two'.

'To' is directional, eg: "I'm going to the post office." Note that it can refer to time as well as space, eg: "I'm going to be late."

'Too' describes an extreme, eg: "This is too long." or "You are talking too fast."

'Two' is a number.

Some writers confuse 'of' and 'off' (this is the sort of error which can also occur by accident).

'Of' describes the relationship between things, eg: "A box of pencils." or "In the month of September."

'Off' is the opposite of 'on', eg: "I took my coat off." or "It has fallen off the desk."

Some Americans may find that their pronunciation makes it difficult to distinguish between 'then' and 'than', and that they consequently misuse these words.

'Then' applies to time, eg: "Then I went out." 'Then' can also be used to mean 'in that case', eg: "If no-one is at the desk then you should ring for attention."

'Than' is used in making comparisons, eg: "This guide is better than that one."

Americans say "different than"; British speakers say "different from."

Another common point of confusion relates to the difference between 'its' and 'it's'. We'll talk more about this shortly, when we discuss apostrophes.

'Its' means 'belong to it', eg: "That is its box."

'It's' is an abbreviation for 'it is', eg: "It's heavy." Only use 'it's' when you could write 'it is' instead.

English is a difficult language to spell correctly because it has such complicated roots. Originally a Germanic language, most closely related to Dutch, it was heavily influenced by French after the Norman conquest of England, and it was also influenced by the high international status of Latin. In the nineteenth century, scholars decided that English should be made to follow rules, but often they didn't understand the real reasons why the language worked as it did, so they made mistakes which continue to confuse people to this day. One of these mistakes involved apostrophes.

English nouns (words which describe objects, like 'table' or 'letter') are traditionally classified according to four cases. These cases tell us the function of the word within a sentence. You don't need a thorough understanding of this to write good English, but it does help to explain some of the language's peculiarities. English cases work as follows:-

Nominative - the subject of a sentence. In "I throw the ball", 'I' is the subject.

Accusative - the object in a sentence. In "I throw the ball", 'ball' is the object.

Genitive - the possessive case. In "I throw the dog's ball", 'dog' takes the genitive case.

Dative - the indirect object. In "I throw the dog's ball at the tree", 'tree' is the indirect object.

A sentence can contain more than one word in any of these cases, eg: "Jane and I throw the dog's ball at the tree.", where 'Jane' and 'I' both take the nominative case.

You'll notice that, in the genitive case, 'dog' is followed by an apostrophe and an 's'. This is simply a marker which tells us that the dog owns something. In early English, no apostrophe was used, just a simple 's' ending. Victorian scholars, however, didn't understand the case system. They thought that the 's' must indicate an abbreviation. They conjectured that a word like 'dog's' was short for 'dog his', as in 'the dog his ball', and they believed this extended throughout the language, eg: to 'the girl his ball' for 'the girl's ball'. Because of this mistake, they introduced the apostrophe, which has been a part of English ever since.

When you use an apostrophe 's' ending on a noun, check first to make sure the noun should be in the genitive case. This applies to all nouns, including personal names and place names.

Nouns which end in 's' to begin with, eg: 'James', follow a special rule. In these situations, the apostrophe follows the 's' (eg: 'James' book'). Many writers make the mistake of adding a second 's' after the apostrophe, but that is incorrect. This rule also applies when a number of things collectively own another thing, eg: 'the dogs' ball' (where the ball belongs to more than one dog). Where a plural noun doesn't end in an 's' (eg: 'children'), the old rule is followed (eg: 'the children's ball.')

It is important to use apostrophes properly even though you may often encounter other people using them incorrectly, sometimes in prominent places. The popular novel Bridget Jones' Diary has been widely distributed as Bridget Jones's Diary, for example. Remember that other people's failings are no excuse for your own.

Apostrophes are also used to indicate abbreviations. They show that some letters have been left out to make a word shorter. Sometimes this occurs within a single word (eg: 'B'ham' as a popular abbreviation for 'Birmingham'), but these uses are almost always slang, so you should avoid them in your formal business communications. More often, an apostrophe indicates that some letters are missing where two words have been squashed together into one, eg: 'can't' as an abbreviated form of 'can not', or 'she'll' as an abbreviated form of 'she will'. Although they are not strictly considered to be formal English, these forms are in everyday use, and language which avoids them can often feel stilted. You should feel comfortable about using words of this type in your business documents.

It should be noted that English, Scottish and Australian people often run the word 'have' into other words using an apostrophe, eg: 'they've' for 'they have'. This is a standard pattern of speech and writing in their countries and is not an affectation, even though some Americans may be unfamiliar with it. It occasionally occurs where 'have' is being used to indicate the past tense (eg: 'would've' for 'would have'), but this is not strictly formal usage.

The word 'whom' should always take either the accusative or the dative case in English (otherwise it would be 'who'). Some writers use 'whom' a great deal to try and impress. It is not simply a more sophisticated version of 'who'; it has a proper function, and should not otherwise be used.

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