11 Grammar Tips

Nancy Anderson
Posted by in Career Advice


Nothing kills your chances at a job faster than a sloppy resume or cover letter. If your resume is filled with grammar mistakes, typos, misspellings and punctuation errors, you're unlikely to get that call for an interview. Here are some of the key grammar mistakes and spelling errors that can make a hiring manager dismiss a job applicant as not worthy of consideration.

Personal Pronouns

"Your" is possessive – it refers to something that belongs to you. Similarly, "their" refers to something that belongs to them. "You're," on the other hand, is a contraction for "you are," just as "they're" is a contraction for "they are." "There" is the opposite of here and always refers to a location. Here's a secret to help keep these straight: Whenever you see an apostrophe in a word that's not a possessive, it means a letter is missing. In "you're" and "they're," it's the "a" of "they are" that's missing. Closely related to these is the common confusion between "its" and "it's." Again, think about what the apostrophe means. If you can replace your word with "it is," make sure you include the apostrophe. To avoid making a grammar mistake, run the words by in your mind before you type them.

Homophones

Watch out for homophones – words that sound alike but are spelled differently and mean different things. A common grammar mistake here is confusion between "to," indicating a direction; "too," meaning "also"; and "two," referring to the number. Another common grammar mistake of this type occurs when people confuse "who's," which is the contraction for "who is," with "whose," which is a possessive pronoun. These types of mistakes can inadvertently send the message to a hiring manager that you lack language skills or don't care about the quality of your work.

Word Pair Confusion

If you're not sure about the difference between "affect" and "effect," look it up before you use it in your resume. Only use "fewer" with nouns that can be counted, such as pens or sheep; use "less" with nouns that describe an object that's typically not countable, for example, water or sugar. "Loose" refers to something that's not tight, while "lose" is a verb that's the opposite of "win." "Advise" is the verb, and "advice" is the noun, and they're both spelled and pronounced differently.

Maybe these differences seem somewhat petty to you. If that's the case, be aware that they matter greatly to professionals who care about correct grammar, many of whom are hiring managers. Don't trust your spellchecker to catch grammar mistakes or spelling errors such as these. Read through your resume and cover letter to make sure every mistake is corrected before you send them out.

Studies show that employees with good grammar are more likely to be promoted than those with subpar grammar, spelling and punctuation. Many hiring managers feel a resume that shows basic grammar mistakes indicates an overall sloppiness that provides sufficient reason not to hire someone. Proofread your resume and cover letter carefully, and, even better, ask a friend to give you a second set of eyes to catch any errors before you hit "Send."

 

Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net


 

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  • Tania Zarubin
    Tania Zarubin

    Great article!!! Thank u so much!

  • Gloria Gardiner
    Gloria Gardiner

    Very informative, thank you.

  • ARCHANA T.
    ARCHANA T.

    very useful guidance; Thanks.

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