However, Spelling and Grammar were merely biding their time, knowing that it wouldn't be long before the other "chilled out" kids found themselves in dire need of some credibility.
Yes, a lack of good grammar and spelling will make you (and your message) less believable.
Take, for example, Exhibit A. Clearly, this man intends his message to intimidate. But his typo (in permanent ink, no less) causes me to snigger self-righteously. I certainly don't feel frightened. His intention has failed miserably.
Exhibit B will cause you to despair at the tragic connection between education and a giant signage gaffe. Would you employ this sign-writer?
And Exhibit C got Amercia (another snigger) talking about Romney for all the wrong reasons.
Brand communication littered with language mistakes will simply spell brand fail, because the message that is ultimately conveyed is one of carelessness or even incompetence. As Olivia Roat writes: "[bad grammar] makes content less readable. It causes people to focus on errors rather than paying attention to the message". And really, "less readable content" is the best case scenario. The worst-case scenario is that your business suffers financially because of it. According to a BBC article, sales on an e-commerce site were halved when spelling errors occurred on the webpage. And if you care nothing for the credibility of your brand's message and the success of your business, be warned that typos could even affect your love-life.
And so, what remains is to prioritise the clear writing and proofreading of your brand communications. First prize is hiring a copywriter. While this is an absolute must for your primary brand communications (e.g. web and brochure copy, ad campaigns, newsletters), it is obviously not always possible to have a professional write your daily correspondence with clients. However, typos in emails can still make you look silly, so if you have an important email to send out, have a co-worker read it over, or at the very least, read it out loud yourself (this helps pick up errors).
If your writing is absolutely beyond redemption, please, for the love of punctuation, rather abandon the email and pick up the phone - use some of that charm that us grammar sticklers usually lack.
[Editor's comment: In passing, be wear... Do not bee two reliant on spelling and grammar apps. You can right a sentence that sounds sew correct but using the incorrect words might raze a few issues with those people who reed your words, so cheque each word is the rite won and in its correct context - Rod Baker]
A little postscript for my fellow language sticklers: You may have picked up a few technically incorrect sentences in this post. This, I assure you, is intentional - to facilitate a conversational tone appropriate for a blogging platform. Tiffany Markman has written a wonderfully succinct piece on the rules, rule-breaking and evolution of language.
Another little postscript for my fellow language sticklers:
1. Do not correct your friends' emails.
2. Do not correct your friend's emails.
These two little lines should be read sequentially, as a mini moral tale. See how the tiniest of movements of the apostrophe changes meaning; notably, "friends" from plural to singular? Enough said.
This article first appeared on pullingrabbits.co.za.
