Please reed on

Does spelling and grammar matter? asks Penguin Kirsty Green .

What did you think when you saw the headline for this article? Did you do a silent ‘tut’, or roll your eyes and ask yourself ‘Why read an article where the author can’t spell’??

If you’ve ever received a text message from me, you probably think it a little rich that I’m writing a piece about spelling and grammar. Yes, I rush my texts to friends with my thumb typing?and, as a result, they are often littered with autocorrect errors. What do my friends think? Probably that I’m rushing, multi-tasking while trying to get a desperate message out to anyone who can help to pick my kids up from school. They’d be right.?

The impact of errors

So, when we receive a newsletter via email and the heading is incorrect, or the council misspell the word “school” on road markings we do make a judgement. We think they don’t care about what they’re telling us, that they’re not professional organisations. What else are they getting wrong? ?

I have refused to submit my CV for a job application in the past because the advert was littered with grammatical errors and typos – it just didn’t make me feel like that was a professional company I wanted to work with.?

A small spelling error in a block of text may be overlooked but inaccuracies littered throughout a website or marketing material can really send out the wrong message.?

In fact, spelling errors have been found to directly impact sales. Online entrepreneur Charles Duncombe found that revenue per visitor to the tightsplease.co.uk website?was twice as high after an error was corrected. In an article for the BBC, he said poor spelling could be costing online retail millions.

Why people care?

Much of that will be due to credibility. Nowadays, with so many scam emails and links to fake websites circulating, we are encouraged to look for spelling and grammatical errors as these can be signs of fraud. That's because errors are deliberately inserted into scam emails so that filters do not pick up on key words that would otherwise send those emails straight into our spam folders.?

It follows that if organisations’ own communications give little regard to accuracy, people will give those companies little regard in return, passing by the ‘illegitimate’ looking emails.?

In the BBC article mentioned earlier, William Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, says that in some informal parts of the internet, such as Facebook, there is greater tolerance towards spelling and grammar – I'm hoping that stretches to WhatsApp and texts too!?

However, when more formal methods of communications are used, such as emails, letters and websites, customers expect a level of professionalism which is not attained with inaccurate spelling and grammar.?

What’s the answer??

We all know how hard it is to spot our own mistakes. We can re-read a passage several times and not see that we’ve added an extra letter somewhere in error. Some people may not have a clear understanding of the right use of it or it’s, or their and they’re.?

Leaving some time between writing and re-reading your communications can help you spot typos afresh. But this will not erase the second kind of mistake, when you may not be aware you are using the wrong form of a word in a sentence. These are not always picked up in word processing spellchecks either. ?

That is why a?fresh pair of eyes looking over your text is an absolute must and even better, have a professional third-party write or proof your communications.?

It can really be the difference between the sale or the slip. ?

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For more information on how Penguin PR can help with your communications, you can visit our website.?

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