I unsubscribed from an ezine the other day because the ezine publisher spelled Merriam-Webster as Miriam-Webster. Ultimately, the info in the ezine itself was just not worth the time it took to read, but the glaring error (to me) was the proverbial last straw.

I’m the type of person who reads the paper with a pen in hand to circle all the typos and underline questionable grammar.

But what has struck me most lately is the way mainstream journalists are using “web slang” in their articles.

A couple of months ago, I read the phrase “policy wonk” in a mainstream newspaper used to refer to a political activist. Seriously, is that the only phrase you could think of?

I realize that as a culture we have become much more laid back and casual – gone are the days of men in suits parading off to work and women in pearls and high heels vacuuming the house. And that is a very good thing. But are we really at the point where we want to overlook poor grammar and terrible spelling? Are we ready to just say “oh well, that’s ok, a few mistakes are to be expected” when we are confronted with the problem?

How do you think your clients would feel if you had spelling and grammar errors in their ebooks, marketing promotions or website copy?

I highly doubt they’d say “oh that’s ok – 1 or 2 errors are to be expected!”

I think we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and not let bad grammar and poor spelling take over!