In the age of email, it's easy to dash off a note and inadvertently make a grammatical error and more likely than not, your recipient will not think too much of the error. However, now that I'm starting once again to write blog posts, I am becoming more conscious about unintentional grammatical mistakes I make when I'm writing. I came across a great website called "Grammar Monster" that I found extremely helpful. The site lists common grammar errors by seriousness. There are 5 categories:
(1) Mistakes that will make you look really stupid. In this list you'll find a list of 15 confusing words that include: you're and your, its and it's, too and to, they're, their and there, etc. When you click on one of the entries, it links to a page that explains the difference between the words and the proper way to use them in a sentence.
(2) Mistakes that will make you look careless. In this list you'll find 38 entries that include confusing such words as: forth and fourth, defuse and diffuse, pore, pour and poor, etc.
(3) Mistakes for which you'll be forgiven. In this list you'll find 34 entries that include confusing such words as: already and all ready, breathe and breath, complement and compliment, incidence and incidents, lay and lie, etc.
(4) Mistakes that you'll probably get away with. In this list you'll find such words as compose and comprise, envelop and envelope, if and whether, provided and providing, etc.
(5) "Mistakes" that might annoy your reader. This list contains such things as: ending a sentence in a preposition, starting a sentence with And or But, etc.
I'm very grateful I found this site and I know I will be referring to it often as I write my blog. I hope you find it useful, too.