Speak Better Grammar

June 29, 2009

Would Like Your Opinion

Filed under: Grammar, Spelling — Vander Kitten @ 10:47 am

“Kidron this morning wrote in a research note that his checks with the channel find the company’s sales in teh quarter might come in light of the company’s guidance of $92 million to $94 million.”

“Don’t you run spell-check? ‘Sales in teh quarter might come in light.’

Hard to have credibility when you make such silly errors.”

Comment by Anonymous – June 26, 2009 at 10:10 pm

“I don’t think mis-spelling the word ‘the’ is that big a deal. Did it prevent you from reading the article or understanding it?”

Comment by stop being lame… – June 27, 2009 at 10:17 pm

The exchange above is from comments on an investing blog.  I happen to agree with Anonymous, and I’m sure none of you are surprised.  I’ve said on this blog before that I think sloppy writing can be a sign of sloppy thinking or reasoning.  I also think it is just good business practice (any practices in many other parts of life) to double-check your work.  (See, I learned something from my math teachers.)  Or if you aren’t going to double-check your work, at least SPELL CHECK, as Anonymous suggests.

But I’m a grammar geek.  Dear Readers, what do you think?  Does the misspelling of a common word affect your opinion of an article or blog?

3 Comments »

  1. A single word mis-spelling doesn’t bother me. A trail of mis-spellings turns me away.

    Comment by Obi-Mom Kenobi — June 29, 2009 @ 11:45 am | Reply

  2. I tend to agree with O-MK. Incidentally, mis-spelling or no, the quoted sentence is pretty terrible.

    Comment by Chris Vander Wal — June 29, 2009 @ 12:21 pm | Reply

  3. YES – yes it does. This was a professional article, not some silly chat box with your friend. I couldn’t make heads or tails of the sentence anyway and add a spelling error to it. I lost all respect for the writer.

    Comment by laura — July 6, 2009 @ 11:26 am | Reply


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