It’s been a while since I nagged about the importance of grammar in your blog posts, letters, and emails to clients. Therefore, it must be time to revisit the subject.
It is important. In fact, studies such as those conducted at North Carolina State
University, the University of Michigan, and Undercover Recruiter, found that readers judge strangers in an unfavorable light simply because of writing errors.
And when it comes to real estate, clients are wise to be leery if you don’t know your way around words. After all, when you help them write purchase offers or counter-offers, the words must be clear. There is no room for misunderstandings.
That means it pays to polish your skills and to not allow yourself to fall into poor grammatical habits.
You may or may not know that I wrote an e-book entitled “A Grammar Guide for Real Estate Agents.” The Grammar Guide outlines the most common mistakes made by real estate agents.
However, just today I realized that I missed one. (Guess I’ll have to do a revised edition of the Guide.)
Here’s the common grammar error that I forgot to mention: Incomplete Comparisons.
What is an incomplete comparison?
It reads something like this:
· The house on Main and 2nd is classier.
· My new listing clients are more motivated.
· Jerry is happier and more relaxed.
Each of these statements is incomplete because it leaves the reader with an unanswered question. “Than what?” Or “than whom?” As for Jerry, the question might be “Than he was when?”
You could cure these errors by answering the question, or by altering the statements.
· The house on Main and 2nd is classier than the one on Main and 3rd.
· My new listing clients are more motivated than my other sellers.
· Jerry is happier and more relaxed than he was last week.
Or…
· In my opinion, the house on Main and 2nd is classy.
· My new listing clients are motivated to sell quickly.
· Jerry is happy and relaxed, now that (whatever happened).
The bottom line: Don’t leave your readers hanging, wondering what you meant.
If you aren’t sure of your own grammar skills, do get a copy of my "Grammar Guide for Real Estate Agents.”
It will alert you to the most common errors so that you’ll recognize them when you see them – or write them! Then it will give you some hints and “mind tricks” to help you remember the correct way to write something.
For instance: One of the most common errors I see goes something like: “Thanks for the advise.” Of course the word “advise” is wrong. That’s a verb. The sentence needed “advice,” which is a noun. The easy way to remember this one is to remember “ice.” Ice is a noun. You can give it to someone, just like you can give them advice.
Happy writing!
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