www.southerngoose.com/shorturl.aspx?69

If we find people copying the contents of our article out of context and without appropriate references, we'll remove our articles from the site and you'll have to pay to read them in our upcoming book.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you read the email lists where someone criticizes someone else's spelling or grammar?  Then, the next person says "Oh, it's ok, we know what you meant".  Then a dispute ensues "Why should we proofread our emails before we send it?  Must we criticize one another for something as 'small' as spelling or grammar?"  

Our geese will admit that for personal correspondence, we do not proofread (it's just fun between friends).  However, if you want to be taken seriously as a business woman (or BusinessGoose), you MUST be concerned about both spelling and grammar.   When you're conducting business via email (either with your customers or with your fellow business person), you are presenting a view of yourself. 

Most people would agree that physical appearance matters.  That doesn't mean you need to be a beauty queen!   It simply means that in a business setting, your clothes should be clean and neat in appearance and 'appropriate' (i.e. you wouldn't wear a tube top and shorts to a business meeting!).  Similarly, your email correspondence should be "clean, neat and appropriate".  In other words, you should be concerned about spelling, grammar and readability.  Every error that is made distracts the reader from your intended message.  Would you like your customer to remember to call you about that great sale you're having next week or do you want them to ponder whether you know the difference between the verb "sell" and the noun "sale"?

Don't believe us?  Here's an interesting article that we found in our email box from Cathy Stucker, The Idea Lady.

You on Paper

Do you look as good on paper as you do in person? Many people seem to think that the quality of their writing doesn't matter; however, if you can't express a thought correctly, why should anyone believe that the thought is itself correct?

Lynne Truss believed that she was alone in her despair over poor punctuation. The success of her book, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," makes it clear that there are still a lot of sticklers around. Proper use of commas, apostrophes and other punctuation will determine if people are able to infer the proper meaning of your words. (One of my pet peeves: Improper use of imply and infer. I imply, you infer.)

Even if your meaning is clear, poor spelling and grammar can create a less-than-positive impression of you. While none of us write perfectly 100% of the time, errors make you look, at best, sloppy. At worst, readers may question your intelligence.

Don't fall back on the excuse that email is a casual medium, that we are all busy now, or that no one cares about proper writing. People care, and many of the people who care are your potential customers or people with the power to influence your potential customers.

One of my favorite resources for sticky usage questions is http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/. Not sure if it should be farther or further? Is it lay or lie? Does the question mark go inside or outside of the quotation marks? You'll find the answers here.

Although some customers won't know (or care) whether or not your writing is correct, many will. Create a great impression by making your writing the best it can be.

Copyright 2004, Cathy Stucker. All rights reserved.
Visit Cathy Stucker online at http://www.IdeaLady.com and get more great ideas from the Idea Lady. Free article library, weekly tips, online courses and more.

 

We think that Cathy makes several good points here:

• ..."if you can't express a thought correctly, why should anyone believe that the thought is itself correct?"  VERY TRUE!  However, we think she missed the boat here.  There are too many times when the reader has NO CLUE what the author was even thinking.  We can guess, but please - don't expect your customers to guess on important instructions!   This reminds us of the incident where someone wrote that blown out eggshells could be dried inside by placing them in a 275 degree oven for 20 minutes.  One sad reader actually tried this technique!.  She put her freshly blown out eggshells in the oven, then ran downstairs to finish some cards.  Seventeen minutes later, she returned to the kitchen to find a strong, rotten egg smell and her husband, now ill from the smell, desperately opening all the windows and doors!  This occurred in the dead of winter, up north.  Imagine all the windows and doors of your house wide open in 20 degree weather to clear out the stench caused by a typo (it should have been 2 minutes...).

PS...somehow we published this and didn't finish it.  We'll have more commentary later.

Join our Email List

Submit your Idea!

Add Our Site to Your Favorites

View Featured Items

Home Made 6x6 Albums