Being a writer in a corporate America means that you are probably one of the only people in the company who will bother to write a properly formatted email. Now do not fret this does not mean that your fellow colleagues can not write said email, but that many of them prefer to get right to the point due to their hectic schedule! What I mean is, that being a writer can sometimes be a curse.

You mean to send out a quick and short email to a colleague but instead, you end up making all these grammatical corrections in your email and before you know it you're peeved at yourself because how could Ms. Martinez and her entire team understand what is needed of them if you haven't provided any background information or necessary context?!

Oh, and do not get me started on those colleagues who always have severe grammatical errors in their email.

Come to think of it, Natasha, this isn't necessarily only a problem at work. I can hardly hold a text conversation without cringing every time I get a reply and resisting the urge to correct people on their improper use of the word "your" (Seriously? We're still doing this?), never mind the constant use of phrases that are worded incorrectly.

I am so sorry to say this Alana, but you're argument would of been valid if you gave us all an example. Saldy I think you're rant went over some peoples head... LOL jay kay. jay kay.

...

Oops!

It seems that my attempt to prove a point has driven Alana mad. She'll be back later, but for now I'll carry on the topic of how utterly painful seeing this can be for a writer and how hard we have to try to keep ourselves from correcting our friends and loved ones every time they write to us.

No, no...it's fine. But this is exactly my point. Sentences written like that make me want to run away screaming. It's not easy being a writer. Between the unbelievably exhausting task of trying to organize your thoughts on paper (in a way that others--not just you--can understand), trying to phrase everything so that it actually sounds engaging instead of putting people to sleeping, and having to go back and edit everything you've written 15 times (because after a certain amount of time has passed and your skill has improved it just doesn't sound good anymore), it's a damn chore and I commend anyone who has even attempted to do this for a living.

And after a while, it's not just your ownwriting that puts a strain on you. Consider this: You've spent years honing your craft and now your grammar and spelling have been meticulously refined, your writing style is distinct, and you are immensely proud of what you have accomplished; however, the same cannot be said for the rest of the population. Almost no effort has been put forth to perfecting grammar and being a good writer because for most it was not a necessity. So when reading someone else's work--whether it be an essay, a text, a post on a social media site or what have you--it feels like someone is purposely trying to torture you. That's not meant to be a malicious statement, merely a fact. If you read someone else's writing, your retinas BURN and you NEED to fix it. It's what you trained yourself to do.

So we'll list some of the really common mistakes that we see (and the ones that tend to drive us insane the fastest) and hopefully we'll begin to see them around less often.

May we please start with my absolute favorite issue here?

1. The phrase "I could care less" when you're trying to express the fact that you do not care.

As Greek Goddess, Athena as my witness I vow to forever respond with the heaviest form of sarcasm possible should anyone ever use that phrase when speaking to me. Not out of anger, but because the writer in me will no doubt be writhing in pain trying to fight the need to correct the poor soul in front of me.

Why you ask?

Because...

2. You're v.s Your

For the love of sanity. Just ... I just don't get this one...maybe it's just me, but I feel that this should be an easy one for people. I'm seriously hoping this common error is due to laziness and nothing more. As Ross Gellar once told Rachel Green "Y-o-u-'-r-e means you are. Y-o-u-r means "your".

Yes, if you didn't know it before the word "you're" is indeed a contraction of the words "you are".

Once more for the Friends fans!

I'd like to interject with a couple of my own.

3. Should Have vs. Should Of / Would Have vs. Would Of

I've seen people use the words "should of" and "would of" in sentences. For a while, I literally could not understand what anyone was trying to say. Then I tried saying it out loud, and it hit me. Some poor souls have taken to using the contractions "should've" and "would've"--which mean "should have" and "would have" respectively--but are clearly confused with their spelling. I am so sorry.

4. It's vs. Its

Much like "you're" and "your", many people still confuse "its" and "it's". I can actually understand why people get these mixed up. We were told by teachers many, many times when we were but wee babes that you can put an apostrophe followed by an "s" to show the possessive form of something: i.e. Ultron's master plan, Ron's busted wand, Amelia's pond, etc; however, when you are trying to use the possessive form of the word "it", you can't. Because that word has a contraction that would be spelled exactly the same way: "it's", which means "it is". So remember--and I know this seems like another betrayal by your old English teacher but bear with me--"its" is possessive, "it's" means "it is".

(I may boycott this one, Natasha. Why can't we use "it's" for both if they'd both be understood within that context?)

*Giggles* Alana I hope you know that right about now half of our readers are like...

Well, that's the price you have to pay if you want to improve your grammar. If not, I must tell you politely, but firmly, to please leave.

As you can see Alana feels very strongly about this topic.

But you must understand we do this for everyone's best interest.

Mainly our own because I may be just a few grammatically incorrect text messages away from meeting my maker.

I know you guys must be in agony right now, wondering why you all are still sitting here reading this (I'm wondering the same thing too at this point) so we'll leave you with one last common mistake that the both of us see everyday.

5. "And Me" vs. "And I"

Yet another betrayal from schoolteachers of old. Remember how they told you never to say "and me"? They lied. We generally now use "and I" for everything, but it's wrong to do that in some instances. Allow me to explain.

If you're trying to say that you ran from the Living Plastic with the Doctor, this is an instance where you would use "and I": "The Doctor and I ran from the Living Plastic." This is because you would say "I ran" and not "me ran".

If you're trying to describe the fantastic adventure the Doctor took you and a friend on, you would use "and me": "The Doctor took Mickey and me far, far away from this lackluster planet." This is because you would say "The Doctor took me" and not "The Doctor took I".

So in short, use in a sentence where you would normally use "I" say "and I", and in a sentence where you would normally use "me" say "and me". Make sense?

Great! Glad we got that out of the way.

There are plenty of other common mistakes that drive us insane, but for the sake of the sanity of anyone who may be reading, we'll end this rant here.