18.Jul.2011 BBC News reports: Sepllig misteaks ‘cost milions’ in lost onliine sails
Seen this before?*
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Think spelling isn’t important?
Think again
A new study, reported widely across the news media last week, looks at how spelling mistakes cost businesses money.
Charles Duncombe, director of the Just Say Please group said:
I know that industry bemoaning the education system is nothing new but it is becoming more and more of a problem with more companies going online. When you sell or communicate on the internet 99% of the time it is done by the written word.
Duncombe went on to lament the use of spelling mistakes in cover letters and expressed surprise that people even used text speak in their CVs.
So why does this lead to a loss in sales? Why do people make spelling mistakes?
You generally get around 6 seconds to make an impression on a website visitor. If your first paragraph has a litany of spelling mistakes, your company’s credibility is instantly (and possibly irrevocably) damaged. Perhaps even more so if you’re selling a service, rather than a product: it smacks of a slap-dash attitude and suggests that your company is unprofessional.
My top 3 reasons why people make spelling errors:
1. Simple slips of the fingers as we type: (who hasn’t typed ‘teh’ for the, ‘fro’ for ‘for’ or ‘mnay’ for ‘many’?)
2. Dyslexia: many people have a neurological condition which leads them to struggle with spelling words, reading and writing.
3. Getting words confused. These are the most insidious, as they won’t be thrown up by word processing spell-check software. This includes confusing effect/affect, their/they’re/there and more obscure word mix-ups like reign/rein.
However, some people just aren’t good at spelling. This is something that usually can only be improved by reading more (the more you read, the more you see words spelled correctly) or by learning specific words that cause you problems.
If you find spelling and grammar hard yet need to make a good impression, whether it be in an essay, a business proposal or on your website, don’t hesitate to contact me for your proofreading needs.
Like to know more about the benefits of proofreading? Click here to learn more about the science behind why you can’t see your own errors.
For more information about the garbled text at the beginning of the post, please visit this page
