Effective communication fosters goal accomplishment. Writing is one of the primary ways through which individuals communicate in the work environment. It is required of every professional, regardless of their areas of specialty, to possess effective writing skills so that they can develop coherent sentences and quality arguments. Effectively written documents are not only transparent in terms of their purpose but also intended for a specific audience. According to Droz and Jacobs (2019), skillfully written documents help professionals to make positive first impressions. Additionally, it also enables one to effectively exchange ideas, relay the correct intentions, and persuade readers to take certain courses of actions and embrace different viewpoints. Workplace writing enables professionals to document critical information which is used by organizational stakeholders to make informed decisions.
Several types of workplace writing exist. They include emails, memos, and letters. Emails are a contemporary form of communication through which short electronic messages are sent to internal and external audiences. Generally, they are the least official communication genre and are highly flexible since they can be sent to one or many individuals. This medium of communication also enables individuals to send attachments and large documents, making it a convenient communication channel between professionals. The second type of workplace writings is memos. Nkateng and Kasule (2016) claim that m emos are strictly meant to relay certain messages to staffs within an organization. Professionals use memos to present brief proposals or reports and inform staffs of the forthcoming events, such as staff meetings. Today, memos are sent via email and can also be printed and distributed via mailboxes. The final type of workplace writing is letters. Business letters enable individuals to communicate with external audiences formerly. It is this aspect of formality that distinguishes them from memos. Irrefutably, letters enable individuals to develop professional relationships and make positive first impressions to their clients and potential employers, among others. The contemporary business environment is highly competitive, making it obligatory for staffs to possess effective writing skills so that they can clearly convey their ideas, generate persuasive arguments, and make positive first impressions to gain a competitive advantage over others.
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Writing Issues
Grammar mistakes decrease the quality of arguments presented in workplace writings. Typical grammatical errors result in unclear arguments, which are often confusing and misinterpreted. Workplace writings which are full of such errors make individuals seem unprofessional. There are several egregious grammatical errors that most people make in formal writing. The first is the use of “ Your and You’re.” Most people do not really know the difference between the two words. The former is possessive and denotes that something belongs to someone while the latter, “you’re” is a contracted version of two words, which are “you” and “are.” For instance, one may write, “You’re response will be much appreciated,” instead of “Your response will be much appreciated.” Mistakes such as these result in confusion and create the impression that a letter or an email was written hastily and by incompetent individuals.
Secondly, the majority of individuals do not know the difference between, there, their, and they’re. For example, a person who intends to write, “Their proposal was interesting,” can write, “They’re proposal was interesting, or Their proposal was interesting.” Irrefutably, the first sentence uses a possessive which indicates that the proposal belongs to a group of people. The second one, “They’re” is a contraction of the words “they and are” while the last, “there” is used as a place, for example in the sentence, “They live there.” It is imperative for people to understand the differences between these words so that they can use them effectively.
The third common mistake is the interchangeable use of It’s and Its. The two words are tricky to use since the majority of writers do not know that they are two distinct words. In detail, “It’s” is a shortened version of the words “It” and “Is.” While “Its” is a possessive noun. A person who intends to write, “It’s time to act upon our agreement,” may write, “Its’ time to act upon our agreement.” The first sentence is correct, while the second one is wrong. According to Nkateng and Kasule (2016), c ontractions are mostly discouraged in academic and formal writing such as business letters and are often used in casual and less formal writings such as emails. Writers are encouraged to use two words, instead of contractions, such as “it is,” instead of its contracted form, ( it’s).
The fourth grammatical mistake is the use of “ to, too, and two”. The first proposition has multiple meanings, including towards and until. The second is an adverb, which means excessively or also, while the last is a number. The three words are often confusing to people since they have the pronunciation. Generally, they are homophones, words that are pronounced in the same way but have different meanings and spellings ( Onwuegbuzie, 2017 ). The sentence, “Too much of anything is poisonous,” is correct, while the sentences, “To/ two much of anything is poisonous,” is grammatically incorrect. To can be used in a statement like, “I would like to go,” while the use of two is appropriate in, “Two cups of flour are enough.”
The fifth common mistake is the use of “ that, who, and whom.” The difference between who and whom is that the former should be used to refer to the subject while the latter is used as the object of the verb or preposition in the sentence. For example, in the sentence, “ Who baked that sweet cake,” the underlined word is the subject in the sentence. Whereas, in the statement, “ Whom do you believe,” the underlined word is the object of the verb, believe. That, on the other hand is a determiner, which shows that an object is far from the speaker, commonly used at the beginning of sentences. For instance, “That is my house over there.” The word can also be used as a relative pronoun that links two clauses, for instance, “Sally bought the dresses that her mother was selling.” Additionally, “that” is also used as an object in a clause, for example, “Jennifer said that she would be late for church. “Aside from these, it is also used as a compliment to a noun or adjective, and the subject of a sentence.
The sixth mistake rests on the use of the words “Led or Lead.” Irrefutably, the majority of writers are not conversant with present and past tenses of different words, including the ones stated in the previous sentence. The word “led” is the past tense of the word “lead.” Undeniably, the main reason why the words are often confusing is that both are read in the same way, and have infinitives that have identical spellings as the past tense ( Onwuegbuzie, 2017 ). Aside from the issue of the tenses, the word “lead” also denotes a metal, even though it is pronounced the same way as led. The difference between the two terms is best demonstrated by the sentences, “They led us to believe that we were esteemed guests,” and “His hands were heavy, like they were made from lead .” Led and lead is homophones, which should be studied extensively to foster an understanding of how they should be used.
Comma-related errors are the seventh common grammatical mistake. Most people fail to punctuate their sentences effectively. The most common grammatical error is writing another sentence after putting a comma. The mistake is referred to as a run-on error. The sentence, “I like horror movies, they are terrifying though,” is incorrect since they are two sentences which are separated by a comma. The correct version of the sentence is, I like horror movies. They are terrifying though. Run-on errors occur due to wrong punctuation at the end of sentences. Several other significant mistakes relating to the use of commas also exist. For instance, inserting a comma before the word “that” in a clause, for example, “The vehicle, that hit the old lady was yellow.” In this case, the writer uses a redundant comma. The correct sentence is “The vehicle that hit the old lady was yellow.” Likewise, failing to insert a comma between two autonomous clauses separated by coordinating conjunction is another grammatical mistake. The sentence, “I participated in the game but I did not win in any of the competitions,” is wrong. A comma is required between the word game and but, for the sentence to be correct. Furthermore, errors also occur when people insert commas before verbs that link relative clauses to the main ones ( Onwuegbuzie, 2017 ). Irrefutably, commas eliminate the connection between the clauses, altering the meaning of the sentence. For example, “One of the main advantages of having skilled writers is free revision services.” The sentence is incorrect since the comma breaks the link between the relative and the main clause. It would be corrected by removing the comma.
People also make grammatical errors through the use of numbers in writing. They either use words to convey numbers or the numbers themselves in their formal writings, based on the format style they are using. Often, they forget to add a hyphen for numbers between twenty-one and ninety-nine, for instance, “twenty two and thirty one.” Additionally, they also use the word “and” for numbers above one hundred, which is wrong. Like the number 102 should be written as one hundred two, instead of one hundred and two.
Errors in subject-verb agreement constitute the ninth grammatical issue. New learners find this task particularly challenging. It is imperative for writers to understand the difference between singular and plural subjects. The subject and the verb of every sentence should be in an agreement where number and person re concerned. For instance, the sentence, “I have tried to apologize, but my efforts have been futile,” is writing since the subject and verb do not match. “I” is a singular form which should be followed by the plural form “have.” The situation would have been different if the subject was in plural form, for instance, “we.” In such a case, the correct sentence would have been, “We have tried to apologize, but our efforts have been futile.”
The tenth grammatical mistake also results from irregular verbs. People often find irregular verbs such as cut/cut or find/found, and lie/lay confusing since they do not need an -ed to indicate that they are past tenses or have different forms to show that they are past participles. Onwuegbuzie (2017) claims that a m ajority of writers add an -ed at the end since they are not familiar with the nature of these irregular verbs. For instance, “I cutted the apple into two pieces,” instead of, “I cut the apple into two pieces.” Another example is, “She lied still for three hours after the fall,” Instead of “she lay still for three hours after the fall.
O'Neill and Gravois (2017) posit that people should revise and edit their work to improve the quality of arguments in the essay. Many individuals fail to revise and edit their papers effectively since they focus more on correcting grammatical issues, as opposed to ensuring that the ideas flow coherently and logically from one to the next, to form unified sentences that convey the intended meanings. In detail, most writers do not include a thesis statement that provides an overview of what the paper is about or even edit to ensure that every paragraph conveys transparent ideas that relate to the thesis statement ( O'Neill & Gravois, 2017 ). Furthermore, they do not also revise topic sentences or transitions to relay their ideas more clearly. They also forget to check if the ideas in the paragraphs relate to the one stated in the topic sentences. It is also common for writers to ignore the conclusion paragraph during revisions. As a result, they do not make edits to ensure that it revisits the thesis and that it summarizes the most dominant themes in the paper.
Conclusion
In summation, people are prone to making numerous grammatical mistakes in their workplace writings. The mistakes range from simple grammatical errors such as punctuation mistakes, inappropriate use of tenses, the lack of subject-verb agreement, to ineffective revisions and edits. It is imperative for companies to ensure that their staffs undergo extensive training in formal writing, to ensure that they develop quality arguments and sentences that flow logically and in a coherent manner. As a result, fewer misunderstandings would occur, and companies would retain their impeccable images as a result of the levels of professionalism and decorum exhibited in their staffs writing.
References
Droz, P. W., & Jacobs, L. S. (2019). Genre Chameleon: Email, Professional Writing Curriculum, and Workplace Writing Expectations. Technical Communication , 66 (1), 68-92.
Nkateng, U., & Kasule, D. (2016). From University Writing to Workplace Writing. Nordic Journal of African Studies , 25 (2), 16-16.
Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2017). Most Common Formal Grammatical Errors Committed by Authors. Journal of Educational Issues , 4 (1), 109-140.
O'Neill, K. S., & Gravois, R. (2017). Using a Focus on Revision to Improve Students' Writing Skills. Journal of Instructional Pedagogies , 19 .
