What Grammar and Spelling Mistakes REALLY Tell Us

I think I'm losing my cool with being cool. I mean, that moment of being so on the pulse that you've sent out an email without spell checking or sending the right link. Yup, you've made grammatical and spelling errors and your links don't work and that's okay right? 

WRONG!

Everyday I see claims that you (name withheld) are a marketing expert, that your copywriting is worth having, that you're a whiz on social media... and then you make simple mistakes. Forgive me for asking, but how exactly is that expertise?

I'm sure it's a form of disruptive or polarised marketing, but what is the result?

Surely there are people out there like me who don't like spelling mistakes and if you make them...

Thinking

WE DON'T TRUST YOU!

Hey, I'm a copywriter and I'm the first to admit I'm not perfect. However, I re-read everything, often.

I check the links to make sure they work first. I test and measure, I aim for 100% for myself and every client.

My advice if you want to claim your space as an expert is... 

Have some pride in your work!

Now I can speak in acronyms as much as the next millennial. However, I feel like in the world of spell checkers and predictive text, (which I use all the time of course) there's a real slippage in what is expected. 

Here's what Wikipedia says about the reasons behind grammatical and spelling mistakes. 

"The interaction of physical, psychological, and environmental factors is thought to contribute to the disorder of written expression. In neuropsychological and neurobiological research, some studies show evidence that abnormally high testosterone levels and abnormalities in cognitive processes (visual-motor, linguistic, attentional, and memory) are thought to play a role in learning disorder cases." 

So if you're unable to put a sentence together correctly, think again about how cool that is.

Grammatical and spelling mistakes are correlated with testosterone and cognitive issues. Issues which, correct me if I'm wrong, might make you a poor choice of provider to a prospective client, especially in the online space where speed to market is a factor!

My suggestion?  

Give the person reading your work the respect of making it well crafted!

If your argument is that time is the issue, it's so 'hot off the press' then I have to say: "Really?"

You may have noticed a certain dose of sarcasm creeping in, but as I said, I am genuinely losing my cool over here!

I just feel that if you're a successful business person then perhaps you would have processes in place and time to get things right, especially in the public shooting match that is the online world. 

In my mind such experts come off like a kid poking a stick at every beehive to see what flies out, hoping to get the honey comb by default. 

At the very least, I'd wonder if these online gurus have any processes in place to create great client outcomes... if they can't even critique their own work to a high standard, what hope do their clients have? 

So, rant over ... I'd love to hear your thoughts.

What do you think? Did I (gulp) make any mistakes ... If I did feel free to berate me soundly. I'm here to learn too. 

And just for laughs, here's a couple of articles below on the worst spelling and grammatical mistakes on social media.

They're hilarious!  

Sources:- Copywriting Strategy

http://list25.com/25-worst-spelling-mistakes-on-social-media/

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/14-worst-typos-ever#sm.0000mvbk8zp75d1zu292qh8izb68a

 

 

About the Author Emma Sidney

Emma Sidney is a copywriter who captures the essence of her clients thoughts and aspirations and translates them into real identifiable results online. As a digital strategist and thought leader Emma takes the content and powerfully adds value through context while explaining the digital space exceptionally well to her clients. Everyone wins when Emma writes.

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