How hot is your grammar?

I recently discovered this 10-point comma quiz on PR Daily. It’s a test to see how good your grammar is and an opportunity to see if you could ever cut it as a Sub-editor.

As PRs we’re sticklers for correct spelling and grammar. Everybody makes mistakes now and again, hence the need for proof reading. However, writing and proofing press materials day in day out, you can’t help but exercise the skill out of the office. For example, whilst enjoying a blog post or online article, I find grammatical anomalies jumping out at me.

The worst offenders tend to be incorrect use of punctuation and abbreviations, with some of the classic confusions being:

your / you’re

it’s  / its

there / they’re / their

of / have (as in ‘should of’, ‘would of’ or ‘could of’)

affect / effect

DVD’s / DVDs

Naturally when writing a personal blog, it’s understandable to use an informal writing style. Additionally, there are some sentences that read better when inaccurately punctuated, suggesting that rules are meant to be broken.

Take the quiz to see for yourself.