Tweets About Typos and Proofreading

What words come to mind if a presenter has a typo in his/her presentation, if a CEO has a typo in his/her e-mail, or if a company’s brochure has a misspelling? Sloppy? Unprofessional? Others?

Corporate image and first impressions do matter.

Some of my favorite tweets include

@JohnJohnsonson (No, that isn’t a typo!)

“I’ve driven drunk and stolen over $10,000 worth of entertainment but nothing comes close to the shame of sending an email with a typo in it.” 

@ProofreadJulia

“What’s the big deal about proofreading? It gives you the edge over the competition, that’s what!”

Do you have a favorite tweet about typos or proofreading? Please share them!

Judy Beaver, The Office Pro
Founder of National Proofreading Day

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