Why Spelling and Grammar Still Matter
There have been some rather sloppy standards that have sprung up in the last couple of years in regards to the use of proper spelling and grammar on the internet. News organizations tell themselves that “it’s OK” to have bad spelling and grammar because their bottom lines are enriched from outsourcing their copy editors to Asia.
Don’t follow the model of the news organizations. Personally, I’ve sworn off of msnbc.com and cnn.com because they constantly have mistakes in their copy, and that makes me question the validity of their journalism. I only read cbc.ca and bbc.co.uk for my news now.
There is no doubt that outsourcing anything to Asia is attractive. There are certain professions that can be easily outsourced with minimal impact to the quality of the work done. Writing is not one of them. You will not get, keep and maintain readership interest if your content is riddled with copy errors, poor research, or grammatical mistakes. Think about what you like to read on the internet; do you trust eHow.com articles to give you good information? Do you immediately click off of Yahoo Answers if you click on it by accident?
There is no better way to convey professionalism than to have a site with proper spelling and grammar, especially when you are dealing with business web copy. The argument that a page with spelling mistakes feels more “real” and “personable” doesn’t quite hold up, even for a blog posting. The better your writing is, the more trust your customers will have for your brand and your product.
