Grammar cheat sheet for community managers

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Javi Del Campo's picture
Javi Del Campo
· 02/06/2016

If you’re going to write for social media, whether it is for promoting a brand, for promoting your personal brand or simply for networking, you have to make the best possible use of grammar and orthography.

Not making spelling mistakes is crucial for maintaining our online image.

Your true friend, the spell-check doesn’t always spot the mistakes.

You can take your time to look up the word in Google or use a dictionary. The easiest way to go in case of doubt is using a synonym. You can find endless synonym dictionaries on line.

A very advisable habit is writing well in any context, no matter if you’re talking to friends through Whatsapp, no acronyms and no “thnx”, “bb” or “k”. Work hard in this respect so that you write well with ease. Turn into a true member of the grammar police.

Some homophones are confusing: “It’s” is the contracted form of “it is” or “it has”, meanwhile “its” is the possessive pronoun of “it” (as in “Paris has its charm”). Similarly, “they’re”, “their” and “there” always get mixed up; “they’re” is a contraction of “they are” and “their” is the possessive pronoun of “they” (as in “it’s their baby”) and “there” is an adverb that denotes a place or it could also be used as an introductory pronoun.

On the same note: how to properly use apostrophes. Apostrophes are there for making nouns possessive (“mother’s day”) and for contractions (I couldn’t do it). Very seldom you’ll use them to make the plurals of letters (e.g. “dot the i’s and cross the t’s”), that’s only case they’re ever used for plurals. Whenever you’re wondering whether you used one right ask yourself “am I contracting or am I turning a noun possessive?”. As we already said, when in doubt work your way around using one.

Something everyone knows but is always advisable is reading, reading and reading to get better at writing and not making grammar mistakes. I our job the most important thing is re-reading the post you’re about to publish. A last look at the text is the key.

 

Main photo: Max Nelson
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