The things my dog trainer says sometimes is just genius in its simplicity. A couple of months ago (yeah, it’s just hitting me now) he told me that I shouldn’t repeat a cue word to my dog if it’s not resulting in the desired behavior. So basically, if I’m telling my Boston terrier, Maggie, “down” because I want her to lie down, and all she’s doing is licking my hand because she smells treats, I shouldn’t keep saying “down.” Why? Well, that’s where the genius comes in.

The more you say a word without the desired result, the more it loses its meaning. What’s worse, the repetition can cause it to take on new meaning.

Like maybe Maggie will associate “down” with licking my hand. Or maybe a poorly written slogan will turn off customers instead of impressing them. Maybe a call to action that doesn’t compel someone to sign up for a newsletter will just get glazed over.

Why, then, for the love of paws, should we keep repeating these words if they’re not getting us results we want? Saying that they sound nice, or that they’re clever and funny, is never an excuse. Neither is the fact that they’re already on every pen, notepad, t-shirt and baseball cap in your company.

The beauty of language is that there are a million ways to say one thing, and each way you say it can yield different results. So don’t fear a rewrite of your website or sales copy, especially if the current copy isn’t working. Words are useless if they’re not doing what you need them to do. But if they’re the right words, they can be extremely powerful.

Yup. Every Friday. Fun with words.

It’s cheesy, but the name gets straight to the point, so what’s not to love about it?

This week’s FWW (oh, look at that! Already has its own acronym!) is this great site I discovered dedicated to the 3,210 most confusing words in the English language. It’s appropriately titled Confusing Words. You know, words like lay, lie, affect, effect, their, they’re, there, that are constantly getting mixed up and sending all sorts of wrong messages in the process.

You’ll also find some confusing words in disguise–words that are used incorrectly in common everyday expressions though their correct form isn’t widely known.

For example, in the phrase: “Here’s something that might pique your interest” the word “pique” is often misspelled “peak” or “peek.” One way to remember the difference is that when something catches your attention, you might ask, “what?” or “que?” Hence, the que in pique.

In the phrase “This might whet your appetite,” the word “whet” is often misspelled “wet.” I like to remember that one by thinking appetite is not like thirst, so it doesn’t need wetting; it needs whetting.

My favorite feature about Confusing Words is their search function. Remember how your teacher used to tell you to look up a word in the dictionary if you didn’t know how to spell it? Remember thinking that made no sense because if you knew how to look it up, then you probably knew how to spell it?

Confusing Words gets that. They’ll let you type whichever first letters you do know, followed by ***, and find the word for you. They’ll define that word and the words it’s most often confused with, and provide examples of each in a sentence. Problem solved.

What about you? What are your confusing words? Leave them in the comments below so we can find ways to clarify them.  (Are we having fun yet, or what?!)

By power I don’t mean the good kind. It’s not like there’s a beloved superhero out there who’s wearing the wrong letter on his chest because he can misspell words on billboard signs with laser vision. If there was, I think he’d be more of a super villain for all the trouble typos go around causing.

Case in point: While shopping the other day, I came across some magic belt you wear around your waist while working out to optimize your movements. I picked up the box, started reading its description, and was growing increasingly interested until I read “workout kit incldes”. See what they did there? They left out one little letter in “includes.” One missing letter was all it took for my perception of the product to go from “could be something I could use” to “looks like they just threw it all together!” Now, instead of my focus staying on the product, I started thinking about how that typo got past their writing and design department. I imagined two tired, overworked employees in a tiny office rushing to meet a deadline. I wondered, if they overlooked the packaging, what else did they overlook? In essence, that one typo cost the product its credibility.

Now, I know what you’re going to say. Not everyone’s a writer. Not everyone cares that much about a typo. For me, it really depends on the outlet. An 80,000-word book might have one or two that should get fixed in its second printing. Newspapers, news sites and even blogs are written at a much faster pace, but can at least be corrected online relatively easily.

It’s different when you’re looking at consumer goods or promotional materials. When consumers are looking at a product, they expect a finished product. An item on a store shelf with pretty packaging and a quality seal or price tags hanging from it comes with an unspoken promise that it’s new and perfect. A company’s website, a restaurant’s menu, and a salon’s brochure is a reflection of not just who they are, but of how put-together they are. A customer will draw these conclusions almost subconsciously as they browse through information to find out more about a service. Typos are like big speed bumps that snap them out of that focus and put them on a road to a completely different conclusion from the one intended.

Good thing this can all be easily prevented by getting a second pair of eyes to check everything before it’s finalized. And then check it again. And again. And maybe once more. Does that make proofreaders the heroes to typos’ villains? Could be interesting…

Ever have one of those days when company’s coming, the house is a mess, and you only have enough time to sweep the living room, toss out-of-place objects into the closet and light a scented candle? Next time you’re writing something in a hurry, whether it’s an email, a letter, or even a status update on your Facebook page, give your writing a quick polish, too. After all, the messages you put out into the world say just as much (if not more) about you than a clean house does, with a much larger audience. These quick tips are perfect for when you don’t have time for an all-out cleaning session, but still want to make a good impression.

1. Don’t pad your statement with empty words: Some words don’t add anything to what you’re saying, and they may end up taking away from it. Watch out for words like “currently” (Currently, our company has 65 employees) or “I think” (I think we would all be happier if we had a four-day work week) or “in fact” (In fact, all of these sentences could have stood on their own and made a more powerful statement).

2. Watch out for crutch words: You may not know it, but chances are you have some favorite words that you use repeatedly in your writing. Maybe “great” is your go-to word for when you like something, or “extremely” is the one you constantly use for emphasis, or you’re always putting “following up” on your email subject lines. Falling back on your crutch words makes writing sound repetitive and appear to lack substance, so identify and eliminate them. By this I don’t just mean replacing them with synonyms, which works only if your crutch words are making two distinct points. Take the opportunity to read back and make sure your message isn’t redundant, then simplify it and and move on.

3. Avoid clichés: The more you use a cliché (and it wouldn’t be a cliché if it wasn’t overused) the more those words lose their meaning. Describing your company as having “state-of-the-art” equipment or being the “industry leader” doesn’t say much because that same description has been used for countless others. Go beyond the clichés and get specific. Did you write industry leader because you won top awards the last four years? Is that equipment state-of-the-art because you use special lasers that zap away dust bunnies? Say those things instead.

What about you? What’s the one thing you check before sending out a message?