Punctuation, Grammar, and Spelling

Quick reference

• 00:04 Punctuation, grammar, and spelling.
• 00:07 Three topics that people have very different views about.
• 00:11 For some people, they bring back bad school memories, while for others,
• 00:15 they're irritated by the slightest error or perceived error.
• 00:19 Wherever on the spectrum you fall,
• 00:21 you're likely here because you know they're kind of important.
• 00:26 Punctuation marks are what we use when we're writing to help make our meaning
• 00:30 clearer.
• 00:31 They signal to the reader that there's a long or short pause,
• 00:36 a change in inflection, volume, mood, idea, speaker, and so on.
• 00:42 If you are not convinced about how important punctuation is,
• 00:45 look at this commonly used example.
• 00:56 The punctuation in this sentence makes all the difference to grammar.
• 01:01 Here are some frequently used punctuations in English.
• 01:05 The comma is used to separate ideas or items in a list.
• 01:09 They're also used in some date formats and
• 01:12 in letter writing after the salutation and greeting.
• 01:15 Sentences with commas are read with a short pause.
• 01:19 The full stop or period is used at the end of a sentence.
• 01:23 We read that with a long pause.
• 01:26 The question mark is used at the end of a sentence to signal that a question is
• 01:30 being asked.
• 01:32 Exclamation marks are also used at the end of a sentence, but
• 01:35 they convey excitement or they're used for emphasis.
• 01:40 Quotation marks report what someone said, word for word.
• 01:43 And they're also used to mention the title of a work, or sometimes
• 01:49 to distance yourself from a word or phrase, similar to when we use air quotes.
• 01:56 Brackets or parentheses are used as an afterthought or to qualify a statement.
• 02:02 Let's talk a little about grammar.
• 02:04 The word grammar sounds scary to some people.
• 02:07 But it's really just about how you put words together in an accepted way,
• 02:11 in a particular language to make yourself understood by speakers of that language.
• 02:17 As the language gets more established,
• 02:19 language experts listen to how words are used in that language.
• 02:23 Then they come up with rules,
• 02:25 based on how native speakers put words together to form sentences.
• 02:29 So you can quickly see from this that grammar rules will change over time.
• 02:34 The grammar rules you may have learned 30 or
• 02:36 even 15 years ago might be considered old today.
• 02:40 It doesn't mean you're old.
• 02:41 It just means that speakers of the language have changed the way
• 02:44 they put certain words together.
• 02:49 It also means that grammar rules may be different from place to place.
• 02:53 Think about English for instance.
• 02:56 England is considered the birthplace of English, but over the centuries,
• 03:00 English has become the native language of many locations all over the world.
• 03:06 English grammar has evolved in England, but also in all those other places.
• 03:12 And because of the different influences on the people who speak the language in each
• 03:17 locality, we find that the language has evolved differently in each location.
• 03:22 So there is British English grammar, but there is also American English grammar.
• 03:27 And what about places that were more recent colonies of England?
• 03:30 Like Australia, the Caribbean, countries of Asia, South and West Africa, and so on.
• 03:36 These places all have native English speakers, but
• 03:39 there may be slight differences in the technical ways they put words together.
• 03:43 When thinking about grammar and business writing, it's important to remember these
• 03:48 local and cultural differences which may change the way words are put together.
• 03:54 For instance, look at these differences.
• 03:57 In British English, we may say, are you working at the weekend?
• 04:01 While in American English, we'd say are you working on the weekend?
• 04:08 In Australian English, I learnt how to use the new software yesterday.
• 04:14 In Caribbean English, I learned how to use the new software yesterday.
• 04:21 In Indian English, where do you stay?
• 04:24 Can we meet Thursday itself?
• 04:27 In Canadian English, where do you live?
• 04:29 Can we meet on Thursday the latest?
• 04:33 In these sentences, grammar teachers in their respective localities would tell
• 04:37 a student that that's the correct usage of their words,
• 04:40 but those same sentences would most likely be corrected elsewhere.
• 04:46 So this naturally prompts the question, are grammar rules important?
• 04:51 Should we even be talking about grammar rules?
• 04:53 Yes, we should.
• 04:56 Like we mentioned at the outset, there are different kinds of people in the world.
• 05:00 Some don't care about grammar, and some are passionate about it.
• 05:04 In most business settings, poor grammar is perceived as sloppy,
• 05:09 careless, or even ignorant.
• 05:11 It makes all the difference when you're trying to secure a new client account to
• 05:16 be understood on social media or to get a job.
• 05:19 So you should be asking yourself, does my target audience have the same background I
• 05:24 do as far as language is concerned?
• 05:27 Even if we speak the same language, do the words mean the same thing to them?
• 05:32 Can I choose a more neutral or
• 05:34 more universal expression instead of this very specific one?
• 05:38 If there's a book title or business tagline that you really love and
• 05:42 want to use, it doesn't hurt to type it into a search engine,
• 05:45 to see what some popular interpretations might be.
• 05:50 Remember, the whole point of communication is to convey your idea to the audience.
• 05:55 You don't want to be misunderstood.
• 05:58 Misunderstandings almost always lead to negative outcomes and
• 06:01 could end up being very expensive.
• 06:05 What about spelling?
• 06:07 Most computer software programs have spell checks built in.
• 06:11 So do we really need to know how to spell?
• 06:15 English is notorious for homophones, words that sound the same but
• 06:18 have different spellings and entirely different meanings.
• 06:23 People with dyslexia or those who are just learning English,
• 06:26 may have a hard time with this concept, but
• 06:29 obviously it has nothing to do with their level of intelligence.
• 06:33 Common culprits in English are words like
• 06:38 they're, accept and except, your.
• 06:43 These are all valid words, so some software spell checks won't catch them.
• 06:48 If you type the sentence in Microsoft Word for instance,
• 06:59 And you run it through a spell check,
• 07:01 Word completes the check without making any corrections.
• 07:06 But if you do use the sentence on a public platform or in a business email,
• 07:11 you run the risk of not being taken seriously.
• 07:14 And you've just disqualified yourself from doing business with an entire segment of
• 07:18 the population believes that if you can't write or spell well,
• 07:22 you're not worth their time or money.
• 07:25 At this stage, it doesn't even matter that that's not true.
• 07:29 Your job isn't to convince people to be more inclusive,
• 07:32 it's to convince them that you are good at what you do, and
• 07:35 it starts with coming across positively in the way that you communicate.
• 07:40 Whether or not you consider yourself good with punctuation, grammar, and spelling,
• 07:45 I highly recommend using software that's specifically designed to look out for
• 07:50 writing errors, like Grammarly or Ginger.
• 07:55 The great thing about most of these programs is that
• 07:58 you can install an extension on your browser and they integrate with Gmail,
• 08:03 Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and thousands of other websites.
• 08:08 You can even install them as add-ins from Microsoft Office.
• 08:11 So you'll be able to type your Word documents with more confidence.

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