1. Getting the Right Words Across
Presented on: September 20, 2017
Presenter:
Teoti Anderson
A Dog’s Best Friend

2. Today We’ll Cover
Common mistakes pet professionals make in their written communications.
Tips for making your communications showcase your expertise.

3. A Little Background …

4. Perception Matters
Poor communications create poor impressions

5. Why It Matters

6. Why It Matters
Credibility

7. Common Mistakes Spelling errors Grammatical errors Punctuation errors
Lack of clarity

8. Er … Maybe Not From a profile on Rover.com:
“Reliable caregiver for dogs and grew up with animals. Animal lover belonging to me or anyone else. I believe animals are never at fault and should not be repremanded as a human being. My family is anti cruelty to animals. I have a teenager who is also an animal lover animals are in my teenager's heart and soul she will also be watching and walking the dogs.”

9. Oops

10. Huh? From a dog training company website:
“Our methods have been documented by veterinarians and animal activist across the country, making our dog training the next best thing to your dog actually speaking to you.”

11. Back to Some Basics

12. Their, There, They’re Their: possessive. Belongs to them. There: place
They’re = they are

13. Their, There, They’re Their dogs were crazy.
Put the crazy dogs over there.
They’re not crazy!

14. You’re vs. Your Your is possessive. Belongs to you. You’re = you are
Your problem is that you’re not paying attention.

15. Its vs. It’s Its = possessive pronoun. Belongs to it. It’s = It is.
My vacuum cleaner broke. Its engine was full of dog hair.
It’s = It is.
It is a really expensive engine. It’s a really expensive engine.

16. Farther vs. Further Farther = physical distance Further = figurative
They traveled farther than they had ever gone, in order to further their education.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

17. Commonly Misspelled Words
Then vs. than
Then is used for time. The puppy ate his dinner, and then he went for a walk.
Than is used for comparison. He would rather play with his toys than eat.

18. Commonly Mispelled Words
Shih Tzu
Chihuahua
Doberman Pinscher
Labrador Retriever
Weimaraner
Schnauzer
Papillon
Dachshund
Dalmatian

19. Noun
The name of something
Person, place or thing

20. Pronouns A word that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase.
Teoti has written several books. She has written several books.

21. Pronoun Agreement Singular subject = singular pronoun
A Dog’s Best Friend is hiring an office administrator to run its office.
Not “their office.” One company. Singular.
Plural subject = plural pronoun
The puppies all got their shots.

22. Apostrophes Apostrophes can show possession.
Teoti’s workshop
Apostrophes can substitute for words or numbers
This does not mean I am judging you. This doesn’t mean I’m judging you.

23. Apostrophes When singular, add ‘s
The dog’s house
When plural or if word ends in S, add ‘ at end
The dogs’ house
Mr. Perkins’ house

24. Apostrophe Catastrophe

25. Apostrophe Catastrophe

26. Apostrophe Catastrophe

27. Apostrophe Catastrophe

28. Commas
Let’s eat, Grandma!
vs.
Let’s eat Grandma!

29. Semicolons
Just avoid

30. Semicolons
To separate two independent clauses (two separate sentences) that are closely related.
Often before “however” or “therefore.”
To separate detailed items in a series

31. Modifier A modifier is a word, phrase or clause that adds description
He is a good dog
The dog wearing a red collar
Modifiers go next to the thing they are modifying.

32. Modifier
The man adopted puppies wearing a hat.

33. Writing for Clarity
Don’t make your reader go, “Huh?!”

34. Writing for Clarity Design White space Don’t use a rainbow of colors
Don’t use ALL THE FONTS!

35. Pop Quiz! What’s wrong with this sentence?
The dog bit the man lunging at the end of his leash.

36. Pop Quiz! What’s wrong with this sentence?
Did you see there ad for pet sitting? They’re business is the furthest from the clients house.

37. Pop Quiz! What’s wrong with this sentence?
Today I visited a client with a Dalmation and a Rockwiler.

38. Pop Quiz! What’s wrong with this sentence?
Its plain to see that his dogs lifestyle is an exepensive one.

39. The Goal?

40. Recommended Resources
Grammar Girl
Dictionary.com
Schoolhouse Rock

41. Questions?
Teoti Anderson
A Dog’s Best Friend