by Paula Mitchell-Bentley

Created on: January 21, 2009

There is nothing worse than reading an article full of spelling mistakes. These errors can drastically reduce your writing score on Helium. Since your writing score or star rating is what determines payout for upfront payments, spelling mistakes also have a direct impact on your income from Helium.

I automatically deem an article full of spelling errors to be less valuable when I use the rating system here on Helium. Helium's submitting page has a built in spell checker to make it easy to find and fix your spelling errors. If a writer cannot be bothered to use this feature, they haven't put the time and effort into an article as it is required to have. In my opinion, even a poorly written article is better than a well written article full of spelling errors.

Your writing score goes down on Helium every time a reader tags it as being less valuable than another article. Once your writing score falls below 75%, you lose your star status. This star status is linked to premium offers on market place. Some clients seeking content only offer jobs to starred writers to try to ensure a higher quality of submissions. Your star status is also linked to up-front payouts. Once you lose your star status, you no longer receive these up-front payouts at the end of the month for your new articles.

Articles full of errors are also less believable. A writer who is trying to make the reader understand their point of view or learn something new is unlikely to convince anyone. It's hard to take an article seriously if it is full of glaring errors. The mistakes make you question the writer's point of view, diligence and even knowledge on the subject they are writing about.

Another problem with having spelling errors in your writing is that they can be very distracting. A reader's eye will be drawn to the errors instead of to the wisdom of your words. Sometimes the errors will preclude readers from even reading the full article. They may believe that the article was not properly prepared by the writer, that it wasn't researched thoroughly or that the writer is not dedicated enough to the art of writing to be bothered with.

So the next time you complete an article do two things before you push the publish button. First, read your article through carefully. Make sure that you use correct grammar in your sentences and that your article is laid out in a way that makes sense. Second, use the spell check feature. It will only take a minute for it to underline the errors in red. It will even give you suggestions for the words that it catches. I hope that I didn't make any spelling errors in this!

Learn more about this author, Paula Mitchell-Bentley.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.