One sure way to look careless, sloppy, and perhaps even dumb is to send emails containing grammar mistakes. You would be surprised at how many people send emails containing common grammar errors that could easily be avoided. Although Outlook does correct grammar errors, it does not catch all of them.

I recently went through some of my emails and made a list of the top five grammar blunders that I found:

• i.e. instead of e.g.
• Then instead of than
• Your instead of you’re
• Effect instead of affect
• Could of instead of could have

It doesn’t take a grammar whiz to identify some of these common blunders. So next time you compose an email, don’t rely on Outlook to make any and all corrections. Take an extra minute to review the email to ensure you haven’t made any of these common mistakes.

[Photo above by Dimitri N / CC BY-ND 2.0]