Today marks the 20th anniversary of a very critical date in my development as an outdoor writer. July 30, 2004, was the first day of that year’s Bassmaster Classic on Lake Wylie, and I was the media observer for Aaron Martens.

I’m not a grammar expert, but I strongly believe in avoiding the avoidable mistakes. Here are a few that I regularly see in fishing magazines, websites and blogs that make me think the writer is either unschooled, uncaring or an idiot.

Despite a lack of formal training, I’ve made a career out of writing about fishing – and to the extent that I’ve been able to avoid major gaffes, it’s been because there has been a lot of mentoring from other writers along the way. Here are four that I’ve received that I carry with me every day.