Corporate Grammar Police?

Sue Shellenbarger wrote an article, “This Embarrasses You and I*: Grammar Gaffes Invade the Office in an Age of Informal Email,Texting and Twitter.” I posted this link on the National Proofreading Day LinkedIn Group page last week. Check out the comments. Shellenbarger mentioned a survey that shows about 45 percent of “employers said they were increasing employee-training programs to improve employees’ grammar and other skills, according to the Society for Human Resource Management and AARP.” What do you think? Are employers overreacting, or do they have a valid point?

I googled “writing errors that make you look unprofessional,” and 1 million results displayed. Evidently, people are writing about this topic. In the article mentioned above, Jack Appleman, a corporate writing instructor, was quoted, “People get passionate about grammar.” I sure do! Do you?

Please tell me what errors you think make a person look unprofessional.

Judy Beaver, The Office Pro
Founder of National Proofreading Day