by Kevin J. Browne

Created on: July 13, 2007

It is tempting in a world of e-mail, instant messaging, and text messaging to believe that grammar and spelling are unimportant. Do not succumb to this temptation! In professional correspondence (such as that between student and professor) it is important not only to be clear and concise about what you are saying, but also to be grammatically correct in how you say it. For those who know they have trouble with grammar and spelling have someone proofread your correspondence or simply use spell check.

I would like to share some thoughts about why this is important. It goes without saying that once in a while you will come across a typo. I'm sure you could find some in our textbook and I'm sure you could find some in my lectures. However, it is important to work hard to minimize these errors because failing to do so says something about you and your attitude.

The major problem with poor grammar and spelling is the impression it creates for the reader of your document. Consider the following real example:

"Mr. Browne i was e mailing you to see if there is anyway you can let me into ur class. Im going into teaching and this will eb my last semister and i need this class if it aint to much to ask can u let me in the class thanks."

Here this student is requesting entry into my class. Look at the number of misspelled words and the poor grammar (including the use of "aint") in this short note. Do you think I allowed this student to enroll in my class? No! Consider this as you write cover letters to resumes or write letters to professors. No one is going to take you seriously if you don't take the time to proofread your document. It's no good saying that you simply write like you talk. This is simply unacceptable. What poor grammar and spelling indicates is one of two things. 1. You're not intelligent enough to write any better. 2. You don't care enough to write any better. Either impression is negative.

The technology of spell check and grammar check can take care of a lot of these problems, however, there are risks to leaving things to these technologies. First, they are not foolproof. Here's a partial list of the errors that spell check will not catch:

to two too
they're their there
you're your
weight wait
advise advice
then than
quite quiet
principle principal
effect affect
since sense
comprise compromise
lose loose
are our
were where

In each of these cases you might be using the wrong word. Unfortunately, because they are real words, spell check will not tell you this and in most cases

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