Its You’re Responsibility To Write Good English

Nine years ago, I entered college as a journalism major. I quickly learned, however, that a sense of invention and creativity aren’t exactly valued qualities in a respected journalist and switched my major to Visual Communication Design (a fancy way to say ‘graphic design’). At the time, I thought that I had essentially wasted the first two years of my college experience poring over the written word. I received failing grades when I accidentally spelled a source’s name wrong and sifted through seemingly endless bits of information to craft things they referred to as ‘nut grafs’.

I know now, of course, that time spent while learning should never be thought of as a waste — in fact, time spent specifically learning the ins and outs of the English language is especially valuable to those who consider themselves ‘graphic designers’. We are an industry (and by extension, a world) of appearances — we design and redesign our brochures, websites and posters until they appear to be the best they can possibly be (or in some cases, even better than they actually are).

If, within the span of our career, we expect to encounter even just one written word, we should not only be familiar with how they work individually (i.e. how they are spelled, what they mean), but how they function within a group or series of groups (sentence structure, punctuation, paragraphs, pages, etc.).

I don’t claim to be a grammar expert by any means and I love spell-check menus as much as the next person. I do, however, attempt to take a genuine and proactive interest in every bit of copy that I work with — from client projects, to e-mails and even something as trivial as a Facebook status. Using correct English simply makes you, and by extension your client, appear smart and professional.

Below I’ve compiled a handy guide of what I think are the most common grammatical or spelling mistakes made by designers and their respective solutions.

“Your my very favorite client”

If you’re unsure about when to use the contraction “you’re” vs. the possessive “your”, try substituting in the full phrase: if “You are my favorite client” makes sense and retains your original meaning, then the contraction is correct. If it does not, for example: “You are pants are in my front lawn“, than the possessive “your” is the word you need.

“But its not my job to keep track of your pants”

The same substitution trick works when deciding between its and it’s. It’s is a contraction for “it is“, for example: “But it is not my job to keep track of your pants” is what we are trying to say. If you’re trying to indicate possession, for example: “We are never going to that bar again. Its stools are very uncomfortable,” leave out the apostrophe.

If you’re trying to indicate the plural possessive, their (not thier or there) is your word: “Do you remember those guys we met last night? Their Taz tattoos were awesome.”

“I just really “love” adding “extra” punctuation……. doesn’t it make me look “smart”????”

Punctuation is the work horse of grammar; use it sparingly and only when necessary. Why only use one question mark when seven will do??????? Because it looks sloppy and informal, that’s why.

Use exclamation points only when you want to truly convey (not manufacture) excitement.

An ellipses is used to indicate that information has been removed, or to represent a pause in thought. A true ellipses is always three consecutive periods and many typefaces even have one available — use it, instead of making your own.

Quotation marks are used to enclose an actual quotation and when used incorrectly can make your words seem “suspect” or not “genuine” — the placement of question marks with quotes follows logic. If a question is in quotation marks, the question mark should be placed inside the quotation marks, for example “Does anyone remember where I put my baby?” she asked.

Random Bits

• Spell out numbers under 10 (four, two, seven) and use numerals for everything else (427).
• Generally, use “more than” (not then) when referring to numbers (more than 70) and over when referring to distance or measurement (over there).
• Hyphenate compound adjectives, such as four-year-old girl. Unless, of course, you mean to say that you have four, year-old girls or four-year, old girls.
• Effect is a noun, as in “the effect of her new hair was startling.” Affect is a verb, meaning to influence, as in “the new hair color really affected her ability to attract a man.“
• Capitalizing Every Word In Your Sentence Is An Effect To Be Used Sparingly, such as, in a title or subhead. Randomly capitalizing Words that aren’t Proper nouns is Just confusing and wrong.
• Use only ONE space after a period, before beginning a new sentence, unless, of course, you’re still using a typewriter.

Yes, we are designers, not writers, but if we learn about how the Internet works in order to design usable websites, shouldn’t we learn about how the English language works in order to design coherent, readable pieces? As far as I’m concerned, the minute you type a word on your computer or hit send on a e-mail, you’re responsible for the content — image, type or otherwise. The only way to be absolved of responsibility is to never work with a single word and with a degree that so prominently includes the word “communication”, that’s never going to be an option for me.

For more information: Numbers vs. Numerals |  Why Two Spaces? |  Hyphens |  Quotation Marks |  More Than vs. Over |  En/Em Dashes |  Ten Words You Need To Stop Misspelling