eLearning Series
Typooos and Missstakes
Poor grammar and spelling reflects poorly on your company. It conveys a less-than-professional impression and shows you don’t pay attention to the little details. Now I know I’m a stickler for grammar and spelling (my team loves to make fun of me when I make a mistake because of it).
I was an intern at the White House, I assisted in writing Presidential letters and messages for our Commander in Chief. Mistakes or typos in a message threatened to become front-page headlines and a huge source of embarrassment. And I know that it’s easy for spelling mistakes to slip through the cracks. We recommend having someone take a look at the site every 2-3 months (or more frequently, if you update your site a lot). Or, there are automated solutions that can run a spelling check for your entire site. As I was writing this, I multi-tasked and checked email. I just received an email from someone applying for a job to our company. Here’s how it began: “Hi, I seen your ad on Craigs List and it sounds like just the opportunity I have been looking for.”
Now I agree that the stakes when someone’s applying for a job at our company are a lot lower than embarrassing a sitting President. But if someone applying for a position makes a mistake in the first line of an email, I’ll usually take a pass at even opening up their resume. So if I’m not willing to hire someone who screws up an intro letter, your potential customers are a lot less likely to do business with you if your website and other communication is riddled with typos and mistakes.