Check your spelling people!
Enough is enough. If you don't know how to write properly, then ask somebody who does.
Anybody who knows me knows that I'm a bit pedantic on issues concerning grammar and compound words. I regularly check some of my word choices and their typing from Google should my brain malfunction for one reason or another. Hence I can confidently say that most of the written materials I put out there have no grammatical errors in them. To the irritation of my colleagues, I'm quick to correct them on their spelling errors as well, whether they ask for it or not. Or are even in the same room as I am.
For some misguided reason I thought that at some point when I've fully transitioned into working life the documents that fly by my mailbox or desk would have bid their farewells to spelling errors, especially when the main work language in many, if not most, projects in the IT-industry is English.
I'm here today to tell you something. I was wrong.
It continues to be a daily occurrence that even people who use English as their native language seem to be wholly incapable of actually writing it properly. Let's not even get to the usual "time savers" like turning the word “you” into "U", the combination of “you are” to "u r" and so forth, I'm not here to correct the vast majority of social media users that all seem to be in quite the rush to get their expert opinions out there. I have more constructive things to do than try to scoop out the crazy out of the ocean of human stupidity one spoonful at a time.
The fact that ridiculous errors like misspelling “They’re” vs “Their” (and other similar pronoun errors that I’m sure all of us have come across multiple times) continue to pop up day after day, document after document just goes to show that some people simply aren’t able to focus on the small details. The thing is, some people’s job is not to focus on them (which is perfectly fine), but then you need to have other people who do have that part in their job description. You can’t just, unfortunately in some cases, skip over the smaller things, that’s not how life and, especially, business works.
Seeing multiple spelling errors and typos in any official document immediately impacts my view of the company/person responsible for it and not in a positive way. It tells me that I’m either talking with someone who doesn’t completely know what they are talking about or are incapable of doing things properly, down to the very smallest of minutiae. Neither option is exactly alluring in terms of partnership, especially if they themselves are completely unaware of the issue or never learn to correct it. Failing to provide professional-looking documentation in, well, professional documents tells me that this person has refused to put the required effort and care into their work, regardless of the reason, and I have no choice but to assume that they will continue to do so in the future too.
It is an extremely small investment of time and effort to proofread your text, regardless of the context. You can do it yourself or you can let someone else do it. The point is, DO IT. Having to view another official document or PowerPoint slideshow that seems like it was written by Google Translate from a verbal dictation while doing laundry instead of a consummate professional is something I do not wish to experience again, yet it seems to be an inevitability I can’t escape anywhere.
If you are a professional of ANY kind, write like one.