How Much Of An Issue Do You Think Bad Spelling And Grammar Is?

By Dan Smith

As a writer, most people expect me to be really pedantic when it comes to spelling and grammar. I’m not just talking about in the business world here, either — some family and friends tend to look at me in a certain way if we’re, for example, sat in a restaurant and there’s a spelling mistake on the menu.

And to a certain extent, mistakes with spelling and grammar do get to me — I hate it when I’m reading a marketing e-mail or something particularly formal, like a company report and there are glaringly obvious mistakes.

However, maybe I’m the odd one out here, but generally speaking, I don’t think the occasional typo or grammatical error is that big of a deal outside of formal instances.

I make spelling and grammar mistakes occasionally — we all do. I’ve made them here at Get Paid To Write Online before and OK, I understand that this is a freelance writing blog and these types of mistakes shouldn’t be apparent, but it does get to me a little if after spending time writing a post, the only point someone can comment about is if there’s a typo in it.

Just to clarify, I’m talking about Get Paid To Write Online purely for the fact it acts as the perfect example to my point.

My problem is that Get Paid To Write Online is a social blog where writers can talk openly about any topic they want and receive help and advice on progressing in their freelance writing career.

In essence, the blog is a networking group where you can share your thoughts and ideas, ask questions and generally socialise with other writers, right?

Therefore, if you entered an offline networking group with other people similar to you and someone pronounced a word wrong when speaking, would you focus solely on that one word, rather than what they were talking to you about?

I do, genuinely, understand why people — particularly writers — get annoyed when they see a piece scattered with spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. As I said, this gets to me, too — in certain instances.

At the end of the day, blogs like Get Paid To Write Online are social blogs. None of us have to participate here in a way that means we have to get every single word correct because, simply put, we aren’t under any pressure — making a spelling mistake here isn’t going to cost us a project or a contract.

N.B. — I’ve read through this a few times and I’m aware it might come across a little aggressive! I really don’t mean it to be like that, I simply wanted to get across the point that from my view, a spelling mistake on a blog where you’re interacting with friends and colleagues shouldn’t be that much of an issue because it isn’t going to have a detrimental effect on your career or finances.

Image: fusionmonkey (Flickr)