The Write Stuff, Part II
Wot woud yoo doo if yoo tryed to reede somtheng thet wuz ritin rong?
I know what I would do if I tried to read something that was written wrong. I would suffer in silence, but also with hidden judgement. That’s the great thing about being a professional writer with decades of experience. I have been using words effectively for years and I know poor writing when I see it.
The problem is that we seem to be seeing more and more of less and less. And sadly, there seems to be more and more of experienced professionals willing to tolerate it.
I was at the gym last week when I saw a sign that read “Girls’s Locker Room.” When I first saw it, I immediately recognized the error but I assumed it would be replaced once an employee – any employee – recognized the problem. And then I saw a second sign just like it. And then when I returned to the gym this week, I saw both signs still in place with the error.
Sure, it’s not enough to keep me from going to the gym but it tells me a lot about the employees I am dealing with at this particular gym. The person at the top isn’t skilled enough to know the difference between the right and wrong way to spell the possessive version of “girls.”
Words matter now as much as ever. Twitter requires we say what we want to get off our chest in 140 characters or less. Society seems comfortable with even fewer words than that. And now even more often, we are seeing acronyms like LOL and OMG replacing real words that once had meaning.
As a professional who has decades of experience writing professionally, this can be tough to experience. I’ve learned to adapt to the “new English” that has taken over America’s social media pages. What has made it tougher are the lower standards that seem acceptable at the professional level.
One of the reasons I wanted to start up Jupiter Promotions was so that I could make sure there would always be an option for businesses that can appreciate the level of professionalism we bring to the table. This means making sure that each and every word reflects the expectations of our clients. We focus on putting our clients first even if that means making some sacrifices with our own time to get it right.
So, the next time you are putting together content for your business, keep in mind that there are still a large number of decision-makers out there who expect correct grammar, spelling and punctuation when it comes to what they read from your business. Anything less in our view is just unprofessional and not what the clients of Jupiter Promotions expect.
