How Do I Market Myself: Choosing The Right Words

Have you ever seen an advertisement, reviewed a cover letter or read something that made you question the author’s credibility because of their spelling or word choice errors? Well whether or not you have, keep in mind that your readers notice your spelling and word choice errors. We all know how weird the English language can be sometimes so I’ve listed some common errors below and some tricks I use to remember the right word usage:



Your vs. You’re: If you have a hard time with this one try making up a rule when using either of these words. For instance, if I am questioning which one to use I try using "you are" instead of "your" or "you’re" and see if the sentence makes sense.



Their vs. There vs. They’re: This one is a little more tricky because only one of the words is contracted. If the sentence makes sense when you use "they are" then "they’re" is the word for you. Most of the word "there" is actually the word "here" so that makes it easy to remember that it’s only appropriate to use "there" when referring to a place. Lastly, "their" is used as a possessive word. If you are talking about something that belongs to a group of people, this is the right word to use.



Than vs. Then: When making any sort of time reference you should use, "then." If you replace the first letter of the word, "then" with a "w" the word becomes, "when" which makes it easy to remember that it is a reference to time. "Than" is simply a comparison. I don’t really have a special trick to remember appropriate use of this word other than to just remember that it is used to compare one thing to another.



It’s vs. Its: We’ve been taught all through school that when you are referring to ownership you should use an apostrophe (‘) "s". This is not the case with It’s and Its. The word, "it’s" is actually a contraction of the phrase, "it is." So anytime you would say, "it is" you can substitute it with the contracted form, "it’s." Otherwise, don’t use it. "Its" is the possessive form of the word, "it." So if, "It has a cold", then the correct usage would be, "Its got a cold."



It doesn’t mean what you think it means: Many times we use words that we’ve heard before and we think we know what they mean but in reality we’ve only heard it misused. The word, "ironic" is a good example of this mistake. For this problem I would recommend using a dictionary for any word you are not completely sure of its meaning.



If you have a word choice problem you’re struggling with or one that you have a great trick for remembering, please share that with us in the comments below.