GrammarPhile Blog

Meanings and Examples

Read this 5-minute grammar lesson and never doubt your spelling or use of “they’re,” “their,” or “there” again.

They’re: Meaning and Examples

If you understand the basics, you’re less likely to forget information. The most basic information about “they’re” is that it’s a contraction. When you see an apostrophe (this little fella: ’) between multiple letters in nonplural words, it’s a big, red, bouncy alert: Two or more words have been smushed together, and at least one letter/sound has been left out. These combo words are called contractions.

Contraction examples:

• they’ll: they will
• can’t: can not
• wouldn’t: would not
• she’s: she is
• isn’t: is not
• must’ve: must have
• didn’t: didn’t
• aren’t: are not
• ’twasn’t: it was not (don’t use this unless you’re trying to write 18^th-century-vibes poetry)

Apostrophes are also used to show possession (ownership) and for clarity in a few oddball plurals.

What Is Track Changes?

We will assume you have been living under a rock if you’re asking this question. But we respect all kinds of homes and life choices (in fact, given the current state of the world, we salute you), so we wanted to make sure we covered the basics.

Track Changes is a built-in Microsoft Word feature that lets you track any edits made to a document. Hence the surprisingly witty name.

The Benefits of Using Track Changes

This little baby could save your life. It probably won’t, but the power of editing should never be underestimated. If you’re not sure when to use Track Changes, here are some great use cases:

• When you’re working on multiple iterations of a document over a long period of time.
• When your boss wants to see that you incorporated their edits in the spiffy report you wrote.
• When you’re working on a document with way too many other collaborators, and you need a way to track who did what and where.
• When you don’t trust one of your collaborators, so you want a way to approve everybody’s edits but theirs.
• When you’re working on a document with a teammate in real time and you need to keep edits straight without losing content or your mind.
• When you’re working on a document with a teammate in a staggered approach and you want to be sure they agree with the edits you made.
• Whenever you’re in a content writing approval process and send a document out for feedback.
• When you want to feel less lonely, so you create an alter ego named Janet and have “her” edit your document (you reject most of her changes; what does she know?).

Switch Your Focus

 Do you hate self-obsessed social media influencers? What’s your tolerance level for vanity post after poorly cloaked vanity post?

I will guess “lots” and “very low” for your answers.

In that case, I have some bad news. A lot of B2B writing comes across in a similar, self-serving fashion.

“Would you just look at us? We’re amazing! Listen to this list of all the reasons we’re great! Isn’t our platform the sexiest thing? We’re also smarter than everybody else.”

This approach often stems from the best intentions — explaining why your product or service is worth buying; convincing your core audience that you’re legitimate and experienced; providing concrete evidence to support your offer.

But if you wouldn’t abide an acquaintance droning on and on about their accolades (unless you specifically asked), you can understand why this sort of writing doesn’t sit well with a lot of people (i.e., ticks them off).

It’s not just that it’s often boring and makes readers angry they can’t get those 35 seconds of their lives back, though that’s true. It’s not because the writing is usually rife with jargon or other generic-cream-puff words, though that’s a problem as well. It ain’t even because it’s sometimes so stuffy and professional you could use it to iron a funeral suit (the funeral for your audience’s attention).

Focus on the Benefits of the Benefits

 Nine-and-a-half years ago, I made a batch of crêpes. More accurately, I attempted to make a batch of crêpes (don’t you just love that little caret symbol — circumflex accent — above the “e”? I know I don’t need to use it, but I’m writing this on a morose Monday and wanted the encouragement).

Crêpes are delicate things. You can’t slap them in the pan like bacon. They mustn’t be jostled. The pan must have a precise coating of butter or oil, so they don’t stick or become greasy, thin pancakes. They require gentle folding and lifting onto a plate. Frankly, I recommend you only speak in murmurs while you’re eating crêpes and apologize to them beforehand for the offense of being chewed.

I am the human opposite of a crêpe — a graceless, dirt-covered stampede on a white carpet — so you understand the peril of this story from the start. I was also eight months pregnant with my second child. My days consisted of throwing up, not sleeping, more throwing up, feeling tired, attempting to care for a household and another child, and struggling to stand in the shower. Each torturous day melted into the next. I felt like a gelatinous lump of uselessness.

So I decided to make crêpes. It was, in a word, disastrous. I improperly oiled the pan. I set the heat too high. I turned the crêpe too quickly. Three sorry attempts in, I lost it. I scraped the disgusting flop of a fake-pancake out of the pan and threw it on the kitchen floor, then burst into tears.

Be Unprofessional

There was a time when women couldn’t show their ankles in public. When people used the term “limbs” instead of “legs” for propriety’s sake. When men had to grow their beards out to cover their manly thighs (limbs, my apologies), lest the ladies lost their cool.

I made the last one up, but the point stands. We’ve left those and many other goofy social mores behind. Most people would say we’re the better for it. But we’ve replaced them with silly ones of today — including in B2B writing.

This is the era of blandness. Of same-old, same-old. Of robotic voices and stilted, highfalutin language.

Why Professionalism Has Ruined B2B Writing

Why does this abnormally bad norm persist? Because we’re consumed with the desire to sound “professional.” We equate “professional” with a limited slice of language. We believe the foremost way to establish ourselves as experts, as believable, as the “real deal,” is to write like a lawyer with an alphabet behind her name.

In the middle of this desperation to be taken seriously, we lose sight of the bondage our “professionalism” creates. It is the epitome of playing it safe: no personality, no memorable, distinguishable voice, and no relatability.

Drop the Jargon

B2B writing is famous for its obsession with the “right” words. Industry speak. Impressive-sounding sentences or taglines like “Quantum. Game-changing. Advantages.” Phrases like “…at the intersection of…” (lawyers seem to be in love with that last one).

Unfortunately, the “right” words — the ones that appeal to everybody on the inside, those that are “on brand,” and get stuffed into every crevice of B2B content — are overused buzz words we all love to hate. Jargon.

Jargony B2B messaging is like green Jell-O: The mere sight of it scares off most of the audience. For those desperate few with strong stomachs, they’re left squinting through a quivering haze of words. The message may come in a fancy Bundt shape, but it gets left on the dinner table along with the fruitcake (the food embodiment of cold outreach emails).

If this blog post went through the standard B2B content process, there’d be 12 rounds of edits between 29 stakeholders, converging on the inclusion of the words “innovative” and “state of the art” and a desire to be “punchy” without the risk of sounding interesting. Every bit of personality, every reach toward humanity, every smidge of humor and relatability would be replaced by sentences like,

“Our innovative, cutting-edge technology enables you to leverage your assets for maximized synergy and groundbreaking process elasticity.”

Show, Don’t Tell

I could tell you that spell check is a lousy editor because of its significant limitations. Maybe you’d believe me. Maybe you’d ignore me because that first sentence was boring. Maybe you’d roll your eyes and say, “Lady, you write for a proofreading company; of course you want to rag on spell check.”

The better thing for me to do is to tell you a teeny tiny story.

One of our most seasoned proofreaders, a woman we’ll call Lisa (because her name is Lisa), was reviewing a document last week. We always run spell check first (it’s sort of like throwing down the gauntlet and then beating the heck out of our inferior opponent). Spell check flagged “prepregnancy” and suggested a helpful alternative. “Consider: ‘prepreg Nancy’.”

First, I’ve laughed heartily over this no less than twelve times. Every time I read it, I start up again. When Lisa told me, I resisted the impulse to roll around on the floor like a horse and neigh-laugh. Second, are you kidding me? A human proofreader could be working on two hours of sleep and the maximum dose of Benadryl and do better than that.

And now that I’ve tickled your funny bone (aka your humerus), I’ll get to the real point, which I’ve also just illustrated.

Yes, you could proofread your own work. But you know that’s as risky as making a Muppet (specifically, Beaker) foreman of a logging camp. It could work out. But it’s far more likely to result in a meme-worthy disaster or another Muppet movie. Neither the world nor you needs more suffering.

If you understand the value of proofreading, then the next steps are finding a good proofreader and maximizing the benefits of professional proofreading. The latter is a little like getting the last bit of shampoo out of the bottle; not everybody does it, but the value adds up over time.

For the sake of clarity: The bottle is the document, not the proofreader. Please don’t squeeze or attempt to squeeze proofreaders. We will squeal, angrily.

That said, here are five ways to get the most of professional proofreading:

1. Find a good proofreader. This sounds basic enough to be offensive, but it can be a daunting task. For everyone who hasn’t huffed and puffed and skipped to number two, we’ve listed six things to look for. This is not an exhaustive list, but you can be sure that professional proofreaders will share the following core characteristics:

Why “I’m Not a Writer” Probably Isn’t True

“I’m not a writer.” If I had a dollar for every time someone said this to me, I could buy three or four deluxe burritos.

Sure, some people have a knack for writing. Other people write like a screeching violin, from whom we want to hide all the pens, pencils, and paper. But there are many more people who occupy a solid middle ground. They’re also using “I can’t write” as something of a shield.

Why People Say “I Can’t Write”

The people who are saying “I can’t write” often mean other things that are harder to admit:

• If they set the bar low, there’s less of a chance you’ll criticize their writing. Writing is a little like prancing around naked on a stage while the audience grades you, so I understand this strategy.
• Their “inability” to write well is posed as a permanent state; there’s no changing it. So there’s no need to try to overcome it. Problem solved and buried.
• They actually don’t believe they can’t write worth a darn. Writing intimidates and overwhelms the heck out of them. They’d like it if you’d change the subject. (I do, just not in this blog post.)

“Which” and “that” are sneaky little fellows. They’re both used to refer to places, things, and animals, but they’re not interchangeable. In fact, most people use them incorrectly without even realizing it.

That is a big bummer, which I now intend to remedy.

This three-minute grammar lesson will solve the puzzle of “which” versus “that” for good.

When to Use That

“That” is used to introduce (or begin) essential clauses.

After reading that sentence, you’re probably sad, because “essential clauses” sounds like something to do with Christmas presents, but you’re pretty sure it doesn’t since this is a grammar blog. So you’re stuck even deeper in the mud of ignorance. Without presents.

In that case, let me pull you out and give you the gift of knowledge.