Here are some tips for non-writers. These are the most common errors that PEOPLE LIKE YOU are making every day. They drive many people crazy - I don't know whether anybody ever left a realtor's web site because of any of them, but I know that (Industry plug!) I wouldn't hire any professional who's too cheap or ignorant to hire an editor for his published material.

1) "Its" vs. "It's"

This is numero uno - the most prevalent mistake on the web, I think. Geez, just try to remember that the one with the apostrophe (') is the contraction. Contractions have apostrophes! ("Y'know", "don't", "wasn't", "'twas", "rockin'".

So, if the one with the apostrophe is the contraction ("it's raining"), then the other one must be the possessive one! This presents problems for people because we're accustomed to using an apostrophe to show possession ("Gerry's canoe"). But please - try to remember - we don't use an apostrophe for the possessive form of "its".

Correct: "The plane lost its wing at 3000 meters. It's a bad day to fly."

2) "You're" vs. "Your"

This competes for most common error on the web. (It certainly comes up a lot in msn conversations and the like, probably because these are more likely to be written in the second person.) Again, note that "you're" is a contraction - it's a shorter version of "you are".

"Your" is NOT used for "you are". You should NEVER write "Your funny" - unless you WANT to be ridiculed. "My funny what?!"

3) Don't use the apostrophe for plurals! If there is more than one of something, you usually add an "s" without an apostrophe.

Correct: "I like your vats of cheeses. Too bad you're closed on Sundays."
Incorrect: "I like your vat's of cheese's. Too bad you're closed on Sunday's."

4) Dangling modifiers! Explained in Wikipedia. LOTS of people are guilty of this one, including here on our own writing team.
Some ridiculous sentences happen, like "Covered in newborn lambs, residents say the hillside is particularly pretty in the springtime."

5) Stop capitalizing everything!

The real estate industry is especially bad for this. Lots of agents / brokers think they'll seem more appealing as Capitalized Personalities. The result usually looks really stupid, and just confirms the fears of many almost-FSBO'ers.

Generally, you only want to capitalize these:

• The first word of a sentence
• The beginning of a (full sentence) quotation.
  Eg, The copywriter said, "You'd better capitalize my job title." The other writer said he would "rather die". (More info)
• Proper nouns, as in, nouns which name a specific person or place. Eg, Nancy, Chicago, Keller Williams. (More info)
• Job titles - But ONLY WHEN they are used as part of someone's name. We would say Nixon was a stellar president, or we would say that President Nixon was pretty stellar. But in real estate, you won't be using the title as part of the name very often. We don't say, "You should hire Broker Williams," or "You should call Realtor Bob". (More info)
• Capitalizing Titles of Things (useful to know for headings)
• Capitalizing Proper Adjectives - interesting! But probably not required reading for all of us.

6) Enough with the exclamation marks!

The exclamation mark (!) can elevate your tone, and might even convince readers to be as excited as you sound like you are. But in careless hands, the exclamation mark is a deadly enemy! You look super-flaky if you use it too much. (I think there was a Seinfeld episode where Elaine was criticized for this.)

7) There / They're / Their

Use process of elimination first: You should KNOW how to use they're because it's obviously a contraction of "they are".
eg: "Look at the bananas. They're crawling with fruit flies."

Once you've ruled out they're, you know it's down to either their or there, right? Now you just have to memorize that there refers to a location (adverb, eg "it's over there") and their is used for stuff that belongs to them (possessive pronoun, eg "their reactions were priceless"). If you can remember which phone number goes to which person, you should be able to remember this toughie.

8) Per se (Purr say')

People often write this as "I don't exercise per say". However, it's per se, Latin for "by itself".

Because it's not English, it should also be italicized.

9) "Piqued my interest"

It is not "peaked my interest". "Pique" comes from Latin-and-then-French origins, and refers to a prick (like from a needle).


Anyone care to expand on this list?