Good communication is at the heart of understanding. We are living in the midst of what is known as the information age, where literally millions of pieces of communication are being shared by the second. However, it seems to me that in our haste to communicate, we often don’t do it well. Written communication, in particular, is where I see most mistakes. It gets butchered somewhere in between text messages and autocorrect, and we are losing (or have lost) the ability to say what we mean.

Of course, the English language doesn’t always help us. Take these phrases as an example:

1. Rain in the desert

2. Reign in the desert

The first would indicate that there is precipitation falling from the sky in a very dry land. The second phrase is pronounced the very same way, but it has nothing to do with the weather. It means that something or someone is in charge and is ruling from the dry land. How do we know the difference? They are spelled differently. Ah, but before you go too far down that road of thought, let me toss another set of phrases at you:

1. Desert rains

2. Desert reigns

3. Desert reins

The first and second phrases hold the same meaning as we talked about above. However, the third phrase has a different meaning. Desert is pronounced differently even though it is spelled the same as the first two examples. In this case, desert means to abandon something. It has a long E in the first syllable. How do we know which desert we are talking about? Context. In the third example, reins are the straps that are used to control a horse or other domesticated animal. The third phrase means to give up control of the restraints. But what if I added another phrase to the mix? Take a look at these phrases.

1. Rain in the dessert

2. Reign in the dessert

3. Rein in the dessert

The word "dessert” – spelled with a double "s” is the sweet food you eat at the end of a meal. However, it is pronounced the same as "desert” – the verb that means to abandon something or someone. The first phrase would indicate that our cake is getting soggy, the second that some regent has become the ruler of the sweets (maybe Dairy Queen?), and the third that you need to get control of your cravings for sugary treats!

How do you keep all of this straight, especially if you are in charge of corporate communications? Here are a few tips to keep you from mixing your deserts for desserts and your rains for reigns (or reins).

Turn on your autocorrect, but turn off the word replacement as you type

It is great to see words that are misspelled called out so you can correct them, but there are some words that the word replacement feature on autocorrect will get wrong. This is especially true when you are texting or sending an email.

Take time to proofread before you send

You can avoid disaster if you just take time to re-read what you have written. If you can have someone else read it for you, do so. Most communication mistakes can be eliminated by taking a few minutes to read it for errors before it is published/posted/sent. I know we are all in a hurry to communicate. Everything is immediate in business today and it may be impractical to proofread every text you send. But if it has to do with corporate communications, you owe it to yourself and your company to slow down long enough to make sure you are saying exactly what you need to convey.

Make sure your verbs agree with your subjects

This is often my downfall. I change the singularity or pluralism of a subject, but forget to change the verb (i.e. He reigns, They reign, not They reigns).

Make sure your verb tense is consistent

While we are looking at verbs, make sure your verb tense remains the same throughout your writing. One of the most common mistakes is to shift from present, to past, to future tense of verbs in the same piece. (i.e. It is raining on my dessert, it was raining on my dessert, it will be raining on my dessert).

Remain as unambiguous as possible

When it comes to corporate communications, keep it short and simple. Run on sentences get confusing. So do long narratives. Beyond this, there is so much information thrown at us throughout the day, it is easy to misread something simply from the speed at which we scan written material. Bullet points and single sentences will get your point across better than a long story.

Communication is central to good business. Make sure you are being clear in all of the written information you are pushing out from your business. With a few safeguards, you will eliminate making errors, like mistaking your reins for rains and your deserts for desserts.

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Cactus photo copyright James G. Howes, 2008.