I was driven to write today’s post by the number of grammatical errors and misspellings I come across regularly, on resumes, application letters, websites, jobseekers’ blogs and their professional social media profiles. It’s a fact that grammatical glitches, clunky copy and sloppy spelling do not impress employers. And the bad news for job applicants is that such semantic saboteurs can impact negatively on their prospective employer’s opinion of their application. So here’s my personal hit list of errors that dumb down personal brands – and turn off prospective employers.
The Wandering Apostrophe
In my eyes, the worst offender of all is the wandering apostrophe. As a punctuation symbol, it looks innocent enough, but can grate on an employer’s nerves when it’s used incorrectly, particularly when it’s used to denote a plural. Apostrophes are generally happiest when used to indicate the omission of one or more letters (for example, the contraction of “it is” to “it’s”); and to indicate the possessive case (for example, “the cat’s fur”). The use of apostrophes to denote plurals (for example, “the sentence contained two comma’s”) is wrong, as is a significant exception to the possessive case rule above – the use of “it’s” to denote ownership. Whenever I see “it’s” used to indicate possession, I can’t help but expand the contraction – to me “the cat licked it’s fur” reads “the cat licked it is fur”. Such errors are not only grammatically wrong, but can smack of unprofessionalism to prospective employers who care about such things.
Heterographs
Almost as bad as the uncorralled apostrophe is the incorrect use of “your” versus “you’re”, “too” versus “to” and “their” versus “there”. It’s really not that hard to take a few seconds to think about what you’re trying to say and check that your words reflect your intent. In fact, it’s so easy, why would you not do so, when initial impressions of your ability to value add as an employee are at stake?
Weasel Words
Weasel words are words that are deliberately used to gloss over bad news, or to make a statement misleading; for example, “Send in your details and be in the draw to win a car every day for a month.”
The reality is, of course, that a draw will be held each day of the month in question, with a car allocated as the prize of each individual draw. But the sentence above was written in such a way that it implies the winner of the draw would win between 28 and 31 cars, delivered in daily increments over the period of one month.
Weasel words fool very few employers and can lead to a perception that the applicant using them is at best spindoctoring, or at worst being evasive about their employment history – not a favourable impression to leave with a prospective employer.
Comma casualties
Reading text that places commas incorrectly, or fails to use them at all, puts me into a state of punctuation paranoia – for example, the difference in meaning between “Let’s cook, James” and “Let’s cook James” is quite significant – and all due to the strategic use of a comma.
Dangling participles
“Eating my lunch, the sun shone brightly.” Really? The sun was eating the writer’s lunch while shining brightly? Of course not. What the writer meant to say was “As I was eating my lunch, the sun shone brightly”. If the meaning of a sentence is anything less than crystal clear, it’s time for a redraft! In Australia’s highly competitive job market, it’s essential to use every tool at your disposal to excel throughout the application process. Proofread, double check, and preferably have someone else review your professional website, LinkedIn profile, blog, CV and cover letter before you submit your application. Remember, you only have one chance to make a first impression!
