Do you judge a book by its cover? How about a business by its knowledge of grammar? Do you believe that “anything you hold out to the public in writing should be proofread…. Or else the reader won’t have much confidence in your business”?
Consider that a Facebook group called I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar has over 30,000 “likes” and nearly half a million members. Then read the story of that group’s founding at “More Badder Grammar!” (The “anything you hold out” quote, above, comes from that article.) There are people who consider obscene language a lesser offender than sloppy English.
Even a focus on the topic itself is no immunization. Sharp-eyed readers of the MBG article may notice that the writer herself broke a punctuation and/or capitalization rule (consistently and three times by my count), as in, for example:
“It’s definitely worth a read,” Nichols promises, “Even if you’ve read the first one.”
instead of
…promises. “Even if…”
or
…promises, “even if…”.
Far worse was what the copywriter for an Amazon.com account did on a page selling the very books that sprang from the I Judge You group. The first line of the descriptive header screams, “Sharon Eliza Nichols created the Facebook group ‘I judge you when you use poor GAMMAR.'” If Nichols weren’t still alive, she’d be rolling in her grave.
To be fair, not all grammar/spelling/punctuation rules are firmly fixed. You can still get a lively social media discussion going on whether “Web site” is preferable to “website.” Major style guides differ on whether to use “Karen, Bob, and Mary” or “Karen, Bob and Mary.” What was standard last year or last decade may be a no-no today (I was one of those over-30s who had to unlearn the rule that typists left two spaces between sentences). Everyone knows about (even if they can’t name) the differences between American and Commonwealth English. And I’m sure some reader of this article will take me to task for not leaving the right spaces around ellipses.
But there should be no quarter for confusing its and it’s, writing except for accept, or leaving an r out of grammar. Those are the things everyone is expected to learn before entering middle school.
You want potential clients to believe you have at least that much education.