Top 5 Grammar Tips for Small Businesses

NEW YORK, April 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Whether you're writing content for your brand or simply exchanging an email with a customer, it's extremely important for small business owners to create clean and compelling content that will influence consumers and provide your organization an edge over less articulate competitors. After all, you don't want to make a negative impression with poor grammar. Writing effective content is one of the most important – and most difficult – aspects of marketing. How can you ensure you are putting your best foot forward when it comes to your written communication?

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In the latest PR Newswire Small Business PR Toolkit article, Catherine Spicer, manager of customer content services at PR Newswire, provides five common grammatical concerns and suggests ways to avoid them.

1. Typos. They are easy to catch when reviewing someone else's work, but can be a bit more difficult to spot when editing your own. Spicer suggests paying extra attention to headlines – typos here can be easy to miss because of capitalization or line breaks.
2. Inconsistencies. Ensure that product names are referenced consistently and correctly throughout.
3. Punctuation. According to Spicer, the following are the most common punctuation misuses that she sees come across the desk: 1) missing comma before the end of a quote; 2) missing punctuation at the end of a sentence; 3) improper placement of apostrophes when trying to show possession.
4. Avoid Jargon. Keep the technical information relevant and directed to the specific audience you are attempting to reach.
5. Spellcheck, and then spellcheck again. Spend an extra few minutes taking the time to effectively run spellcheck. While it can save you from a world of embarrassment, rushing through the process and clicking "ignore all" or "change all" may set you back with potential new customers.

For further discussion on how to prevent common grammar missteps, click here: http://bit.ly/1HxgOou

PR Newswire's Small Business PR Toolkit is a comprehensive resource that provides small businesses and entrepreneurs the tools to develop an affordable public relations and marketing plan that helps generate interest from potential customers, engage with key audiences and grow their businesses. The toolkit features relevant content such as informative white papers, interactive webinars and how-to articles and premium access to educational resources, as well as the opportunity to take advantage of special offers designed specifically for small businesses. To request information on how PR Newswire can help your small business, click here. You can receive updates on new Small Business PR Toolkit content by following @prnsmallbiz on Twitter.

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