Business and Blogging

Who Says Grammar and Spelling Are Not Important in Blogs?

by Des Walsh on May 30th, 2007

There are times when spelling errors can be good for business.

For instance, my mother once told me a story about her father, Thomas Murphy, who was the local school teacher in the small country town of Tumbarumba. 

It seems my grandfather was in town one day and happened to see, passing by Mr Henneckie’s general store, a hand-written sign, “Pertaters, 2d a pound”. Stepping into the store he spoke to Mr Henneckie and said “Mr Henneckie, I don’t want to embarrass you, but I thought I should tell you that the sign outside has an incorrect spelling.” “Thank you Mr Murphy,” said the storekeeper. “I am aware of that. But you’d be surprised to know how many people come in here to tell me that and don’t leave without buying something.” 

I have inherited my grandfather’s capacity to be irritated by spelling errors.  I’m more tolerant of grammatical errors, except when an error delivers a meaning clearly different from the one likely to have been intended, or simply makes the sentence confusing.

I’m also well aware that there are plenty of smart, even highly intelligent people who simply have not been taught spelling or grammar and may not even be aware that they are making mistakes.

Does it matter that some people make grammatical or spelling mistakes in their blog posts?

Perhaps not in personal blogs, although I believe some people who have great ideas to share do themselves a disservice by not paying attention to these elements of effective communication.

But when it comes to business blogs, it makes no more sense to be cavalier about spelling and grammar than it would to let a corporate brochure be printed without being proofed for accuracy of spelling and grammatical construction.

As Brian Clark pointed out almost three months ago, some mistakes can make you look dumb - not a good look for anyone who wants to be taken seriously in business. The post aroused great interest then and the comments keep coming - 268 last time I looked.

Brian identified five common mistakes:

• Your vs. you’re
• It’s vs. its
• There vs. their
• Affect vs. effect
• The dangling participle

His comment on the fifth item is spot on.

The dangling participle may be the most egregious of the most common writing mistakes. Not only will this error damage the flow of your writing, it can also make it impossible for someone to understand what you’re trying to say.

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POSTED IN: General, Resources, Skills, Writing