In my travels across the country, teaching business professionals how to uncover and correct grammatical errors in their speaking and writing, I have discovered that no matter where we live ---from Los Angeles to Bangor ---we all tend to make the same mistakes over and over again.

I see mistakes in possessive pronouns, subject/ verb agreement, spelling, and usage--to name a few. Either these are rules most of us have forgotten or never learned in the first place, or we overlook certain errors because we’re distracted, unfocused, or rushed. How are you at uncovering errors in your e-mails, letters, and real estate documents?

Find out a little bit about your writing skills with this quiz. When you’re finished, check your answers with the ones below.

What’s Your GQ?*

Choose the best answer for each of the following:

1. Each of the secretaries ____________a performance review to complete before the end of the day.

   a. has

   b. have

2. Mr. Riviera, an extremely capable supervisor, is the candidate _______________most of the employees support.

   a. whom

   b. who

3. Never use the passive voice when you can use the active.

   a. true

   b. false

   c. not sure

4. Would you like to go ___________out on the beach?

   a. lie

   b. lay

   c. not sure

5. A person is presumed innocent until their found guilty.

   a. they’re

   b. its

   c. his/her

   d. none of these is correct

6. The advertising director returned to her office, she had forgotten the agenda.

   a. fragment – add conjunction

   b. comma splice – replace comma with semicolon

   c. correct as is

7. “It is time for Congress and I to make amends and create a budget.”

   What’s wrong with this sentence?

   a. punctuation missing

   b. personal pronoun is wrong

   c.“Congress” should not be capitalized

   d. all of the above

8. What is the grammatical term that best describes the mistake made in the following sentence?

   For sale: antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers.

   a. dangling participle

   b. misuse of classified advertising

   c. misplaced modifier

   d. palindrome

9. According to Forbes Magazine, the e-mail should be written the same way as a formal business letter.

   a. true

   b. false

   c. not sure

10. Proofread the following sentence and make note of the errors.

    Your skills can by improved so easily when you hire our staff and speak to them about the 50% of sale were offering.

11. Bonus Question:

    How many people ran?

    Bob, a doctor, Mary, a teacher, Suzanne, a lawyer, Patty, an ecologist, and I ran.

A great book to have in the office is The Grammar Bible by Michael Strumpf. Composed of numerous questions and answers from the 35 years he ran the National Grammar Hotline, this book is easy, entertaining, and simple to read and understand. You can order it directly from Amazon.com. Page numbers from Strumpf’s book follow some of the answers.

Answers:

1. A. The pronoun “each” is always singular. A trick: try putting the word “one” after “each,” and you’ll remember it is singular. See pp.203-4.

2. A. It’s easy to mess up “who” and “whom.” “Whom” is always the object of the verb or the preposition. “Who” takes the place of the subject. A trick: cover up the sentence from where “who” or “whom” belongs. Read the second part of the sentence so it sounds like this: “Most of the employees support (him, he). What sounds better? If “him” sounds better, it’s “whom.” If “he” sounds better, it’s “who.” See pp. 344-5.

3. False. Try to avoid using the passive (The contract was signed by Mr. Smith. Instead, say: Mr. Smith signed the contract.) But there’s a place for passive, especially when you need to be politically correct. A serious mistake was made. Why blame someone if it’s unnecessary?

4. A. “Lie” means to recline. It is intransitive and never takes an object. “Lay,” a transitive verb, means “to set down.” It always takes a direct object, naming the thing that is set down. “Lay” always needs an object. They are lying on the beach. They are laying eggs on the beach.

5. D. Though most people know this, it is a very common mistake that cannot be caught by spell check. Person is singular. “They’re” means “they are.” Corrected sentence: A person is presumed innocent until he or she is found guilty.

6. B. You cannot join two sentences with a comma. You can put a semicolon there or add a conjunction.

7. B. This is an actual error made by a President of the United States. (I won’t say who it is). You wouldn’t say: it is time for I to make amends. See pp. 182-88.

8. C.

9. B. E-mails are very different from traditional business letters.

10. Your skills can be improved so easily when you hire our staff and speak to it about the 50% off sale we are offering. Remember: staff is a collected noun, and it is always singular.

    Bonus questions:

11. Depending on how you read the punctuation, the answer is (5).

How did you do? .