Graham Jones is a Thought Leader on Internet Psychology and has extensive experience helping businesses understand the behavior of their customers. To learn more about Graham, visit his website at www.grahamjones.co.uk.
One of the great achievements of the Internet is it provides more people access to publishing than ever before. Anyone can set up a blog or a website and type away, writing their views and news for the world to see. It also means that businesses can begin writing and publishing materials such as online brochures in-house, which helps the company save money.
The problem is, however, that as more and more people think they can write, the evidence piles up that they cannot. Just because you have a word processor and can bash out a cool 50,000 words, it doesn’t mean those words will be as good as the ones Shakespeare put on the page.
Everyone in your business has the opportunity to write and produce a variety of documents. The way they write and what they write can have a significant impact on your business.
Spelling Is a Key Problem in Business
One of the key issues with business writing is spelling. Professional book publishers, for instance, traditionally check manuscripts several times before publishing. Even then, the occasional error creeps in and they have to issue an “errata” list to spare themselves embarrassment before they’re able to produce a corrected reprint. Even rapidly published items such as evening newspapers have the content spell-checked and grammatically assessed before the publication hits the streets.
Checking your written content can boost your business.
Few businesses, though, follow such editorial processes to ensure that the written word is professional, free of spelling errors, grammatically correct and making sense. As a result, many businesses using electronic written communication risk impacting their professional reputation if the material they produce has spelling or grammatical errors. We like to think we can communicate using modern methods, but as one research study found, our perception is far from reality.
From a psychological perspective, spelling and grammatical errors do have an impact on your readers. Research from Central Missouri State University found that spelling errors absolutely affect how the writer is perceived. One study of LinkedIn profiles found that those individuals with the fewest grammatical errors were also those with the best-paid jobs. There appears to be a relationship between how well you get on in business and your writing ability.
Are Misspellings Really That Bad?
Ask yourself whether or not you can allow your business to put things with misspellings or poor grammar out into the world. Whether it is in an email, a blog, a web page or a lengthy business document, poor spelling and grammar can and will affect your reputation.
The psychological impact of misspelling and poor grammar decreases the chances that people will react positively to your brand. Poor spelling could be costing your company business.
Do you think poor grammar and spelling impacts a business’s reputation in a significant way? Sound off in the comments below.