You know that nails-on-a-chalkboard sound? That’s the sound that goes through my head when I read a grammatical error. Do I have a problem? Maybe.

I came across two posts on Ragan about three weeks ago, and saved them for a blog because both posts conveyed the problem, but in a humorous way. The first was a video from February 2010. Check out the video here.

The second post was a compiled list of top 25 mistakes. My pet peeves:

1. Than/Then – There’s nothing scary about making comparisons!
2. Irregardless – Redundant! You’ve just canceled out the word.
3. Home/Hone – Unless you’re a pigeon, you don’t home in on anything.
4. It’s/Its – Don’t forget the apostrophe! Conjunctions are a beautiful thing.

I have to admit, I was that annoying kid in elementary school who corrected the teacher on a typo or other error. Don’t judge me.

In PR, we work with people who expect great writing. Just because we have editors at the wires to look over our work does not mean we can slack off, ignoring that apostrophe or not double checking the spelling of a word.

When pitching bloggers and journalists I try to be especially careful. I’m pretty new to this, so any mistake I make would probably determine my fate in getting a story written. But, since we’re admitting things, I’m always torn between anguish and levity when a journalist makes a mistake. It reminds me that they’re human, but it also makes me upset that no one caught the mistake before it went on the web, aka the point of no return.

I know languages evolve, but come on, we can’t all pretend to be Sarah Palin and make up words!

What are your pet peeves? What mistakes are you guilty of? Divulge your secrets!

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Technorati Tags: editing, grammar, PR, writing

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