Last week I posted this entry, “When a Spelling Error isn’t a Spelling Error,” on a forum that I frequent. Much to my surprise, the response was laden with angst, resentment and vengeance.
Readers concluded that I am judgmental about their writing. Some said I have no business telling them how to write. Others said I was a poor teacher because teachers, after all, should just encourage students to write without pointing out their errors. Otherwise, I am damaging their confidence.
What was lost in my sharing of my post is my intent to impart information. My effort was to provide insight into a frustrating aspect of dealing with international communications. Instead, my readers viewed my input as my smacking their knuckles with a ruler.
I attempted to clarify to my readers that I don’t really care if they spell things wrong in their communications. Instead, it was about helping them when written communication is important. For whatever reason, that was neither acknowledged or absorbed. Readers continued to argue that their clients should get the gist and read between the misspelled lines or typo’s or missing commas. After all, the age of the internet invites the change of language and spelliing. I acknowledge that is probably true, but there is a time and a place for everything.
With that, when does “write” matter? In many instances, it does not matter. Twitter? That doesn’t matter. Facebook? Also does not matter. Forum posts? STILL does not matter. In email? It doesn’t matter when it is informal. IM? Who cares? Even in these mediums, I do not subscribe to perfect language because they are all informal.
In dealing with business relationships, it absolutely matters! You have to put your best (written language) face forward in order to be taken seriously. I would NEVER, with any given (potential) client, casually toss out a proposal laden with errors. The same is true when applying for jobs. It’s not done — unless you don’t want the job. Employers really look into this and frown upon lazy writing.
Otherwise, go ahead and write sloppily to your heart’s content. Then come here and share your experiences.