When I opened up an industry trade magazine today, I noticed an article titled Internet and Fax Scams. As I consider myself a fairly enlightened user of electronic media, I was in the process of flipping to the next page when a couple of bullet points caught my attention. Under the heading “More Clues of a Scam” I saw this:
- Poor syntax, grammar and spelling
- Use of all CAPITAL letters, odd spacing between words/sentences, lack of punctuation and run-on sentences, also no capitalization (Example: doesn’t capitalize “i”)
Hallelujah! If you don’t think these things are important, think again. The message in this article is that the details count, and that appropriate writing skills are a good measure of serious intent and/or validity. I couldn’t agree more.
I have long believed that if you don’t take something seriously enough to get it right, how can you expect your audience to take it seriously? Besides that, don’t you want to put yourself in the best light possible? You won’t look like an expert on anything if you don’t put the effort into communicating it properly.
Sloppy doesn’t win awards. Sloppy doesn’t attract customers. Sloppy doesn’t land jobs. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.