When writing everyone wants to use the correct words at the correct time. Sometimes, though, it's difficult to know what word is the right word. There are a few common mistakes that people make when they are writing. These mistakes are fairly simple to fix if you think before you write.

1. One common place of confusion is the use of "effect" versus the use of "affect." "Effect" is a noun. "Affect" is a verb. One piece of advice here is if you can put "the" in front of it, it's "effect." For example: "What is the effect of the storm?" and "Will that affect us?" Both of those are correct.

2. A second issue is the use of "its" versus "it's." "Its" is possessive while "it's" is a contraction. What does that mean? On a simple level, that means that if you have no clue which one to use, if you can replace the word with "it is," you are going to use "it's." If you cannot, you need to use "its." For example, "It's time to go home" and "Its house is large."

3. Another mistake people make is to use "verses" instead of "versus." It might just be that people don't realize they are two different words. "Verses" would refer to parts of a song, poem, scripture, or another piece of writing. "Versus" refers to two things competing against each other or being compared to each other. If it refers to lines, use the "e," but if it's about a battle or comparison, use the "u."

4. A fourth mistake some people make when writing is not knowing when to use "to," "two," or "too." "To" is used as part of a preposition or as an adverb. For example: "She went to the park" and "He came to after his operation" would both fit this use of "to." "Two" is the number. For example, "There were two children at the park." "Too" is used to mean also, more, or very. For example: "Can I go too?" or "That's too much" both use this "too." The most common mistake that I have noticed with this is just using "to" all the time for all three uses of the word.

5. "Your" and "you're" are also often misused. "Your" is a possessive pronoun, and "you're" is a contraction. "You're" is the shortened version of "you are." If "you're" can be replaced by "you are," you know you have the correct word. Two example sentences would be "Your house is nice" and "You're almost stepping on a snake."

6. Some people often confuse "they're," "their," and "there." "They're" is another contraction, coming from "they are." "Their" is another possessive pronoun. "There" is mostly used to show a certain place. An example sentence using all three would be "They're going over there to find their cat." One important thing to remember about the use of "their" is that it is plural. If there is only one person, it should be his or her, not their. This is a common misuse of "their."

7. A final set of words that are confused are "who" and "whom." The main problem here is that "whom" sounds weird and looks weird to many people. It has been almost completely replaced by "who" in many people's vocabulary. When should we use "whom?" The main thing to remember is that if it can be replaced by "he," it's "who," but if it can be replaced by "him," it's "whom." Such as "Who is going to the party?" would be correct, but "The shirt belongs to who?" would not be correct. For many people, this is a difficult one even when they know the rules. Just keep practicing, and before long, you won't have to think to realize which word to use.

Learn more about this author, Shilo Dawn Goodson.
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