2018 — If you are going to be successful in business, you have to write like you are literate – for speeches and presentations you will make, for business plans, for investor pitches, for business correspondence, for bid proposals, to seek funds from investors, to write press releases and white papers, for website content and blogs, etc. That means people will expect to see a certain level of proficiency that assumes correct spelling and grammar.
Hey, let’s face it, you should have achieved this by the time you graduated high school, if not sooner. If you skipped out on a lot of English classes, tough. Learn it now, or have someone who IS literate write your stuff for you. Just don’t assume that people will not notice. No, you can’t write like you text on your phone. You can’t “fake it until you make it”. We have spell-checker software, so use it.
Ever wonder why we see so many British actors in U.S. TV shows lately, and why so many news articles online are written with British variations of words (colour, behaviour, etc. )? It’s because they know how to speak and spell correctly! Here in the U.S., we’ve bastardized our language with slang and texting, and abbreviations.
If people see a bunch of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes in your emails, letters and proposals, they will think you are uneducated and will have less respect for you and not take you seriously. It’s as simple as that.
Big No Nos…
- Run-on sentences with no periods. Just a random set of thoughts all strung together.
- Mis-spelled words. If you aren’t sure, look it up.
- Sentences that make no sense.
- Using apostrophes for every word that ends in a “s”. Learn how how use possessives and contractions. Incorrect use is rampant. It’s not: a list of our advertiser’s. No ‘ needed. There’s no possession implied here.
Here are a few of the more common spelling and wrong word choice mistakes:
- there vs. their vs. they’re
- effect vs. affect
- to vs. too
- your vs. you’re
- than vs. then
- every day vs. everyday (It’s usually 2 words, not one, unless used as an adjective: my everyday routine)
- insure vs. ensure
- due vs. do
- making what should be 2 words into one (setup vs. set up)
- making what should be one word into two (everywhere — every where)
- input (correct) vs. imput (wrong)
- whose vs. who’s
- peace vs. piece
- here vs. hear
Remember, you can’t just spell words they way they sound. First impressions DO count!
Note: To view ongoing business posts by Marketdata’s President and Research Director, John LaRosa, and to learn about our various market & industry reports, and to obtain free Press Releases, visit marketdataenterprises.com/blog, or email: john@marketdataenterprises.com.