If you’ve ever sought work on job boards like “Elance”, you might have noticed a strange phenomenon: there are people on those job boards pretending to be writers! And getting away with it!

Ok…we can’t stop clients from buying articles from providers who willingly charge $1 for 500 words. But there are plenty of things we can do to improve our own writing.

These five points are so obvious, they’ll make you cringe. But I’ve seen writers make these mistakes. Embarrassingly, I’ve actually made a few of them myself. They bear repeating.

1. Misspelling your own name
It happens. It’s just as bad when you misspell the customer’s or company’s names. Misspells send the message: “I’m sloppy. I lack attention to detail. I don’t care.”

2. Relying on SpellChecker
This handy tool is great, but not always. Use “too” instead of ‘to’ and spellchecker may not catch it. Miss a word that changes the entire meaning of the sentence and you might be in trouble. Spellchecker definitely won’t help you put together proper sentences. (Like this real headline: “Progress Slow in Beating Death.”) Little mistakes like these can add up and chase the customer away.

Not worried about losing one customer? How about the hundreds of potential referrals you might lose over the life of your career? There’s something to worry about.

3. The Use of Slang
Are you using slang without realizing it? Slang is part of our everyday culture, but slang is wrong for your client’s project. For example:

• They all agreed the movie was bad. (intense)
• The little town was the armpit of America. (undesirable)
• He was beat after working hard all day. (tired)
• She drove off the lot in a new Beemer. (BMW)

These slang terms are fine for a novel, but not appropriate for business writing.

4. The Beauty of Word Economy
“I think I’m qualified for this position because of the fact that I am able to write well.” Oy. Let’s apply a little word economy: “My advanced writing skills qualify me for this position.”

Dump phrases like “because of the fact”, “I am able to”, “in order to”, “in regards to”. Check, edit, check and edit again to ensure your document is tight. Get help from someone more experienced if necessary.

5. Sentences That Are So Long, the Reader Doesn’t Remember What You Were Talking About in the First Place, So They Just Skip Ahead to Something Else and, Before You Know It, You’re Scratching Your Head and Wondering Why Your Phone Isn’t Ringing.

Enough said.

Your thoughts?