Real or fake?

One of my long-standing 'rules of thumb' is that if a business letter, email, or web site contains poorly constructed English, then it is likely to be from some scammer. It is not an absolute certainty, as we all make mistakes, but I take the view that any business will check and double-check its publically-available output so as to ensure that it projects the best image and does not confuse or mislead.

Increasingly, however, I find that many genuine communications contain poor grammar or syntax. While spelling mistakes are rare, I assume that that is because the spelling check (or, as the US would say, spell check) in the word-processor is protecting the text composer. The most common problems - and these are increasing - are missing apostrophes or, occasionally, misapplied apostrophes.

Another problem is the lack of distinction between a dash and an hyphen. As a rule, the former is intended to separate the text and the latter to join it. Even business’ titles seem to confuse these two.

It is now rare to receive an email or letter that does not contain at least one basic error. And that is before one tries to untangle the jargon from the facts, which is sometimes quite difficult.

So, this is an appeal to businesses. If you cannot find amongst your professional staff one or two whose language skills are at a reasonable level, then you really need to employ a professional editor to check your work. If you do not, your credibility is going to continue to suffer – and I will have to work harder to avoid the scams.