We are pleased to bring you an infographic on common writing errors from WalkerStone, designed to save you from professional embarrassment.
It’s one thing to have simple typos in an email: We can usually figure out what you’re trying to say.
But when you make grammatical errors when you write, or use the wrong word in a report, your professionalism will be under scrutiny.
You normally hear from us about presentation issues, but let’s take it up a notch and talk about communication–specifically verbal communication.
Good writing is generally a sign of good thinking. So when you write well, you get credit for being intelligent.
In business, good speaking is a little different. It is for the most part less formal. People are more tolerant of grammatical errors, of stutters and stops, because most of us don’t speak in complete sentences.
Of course, when the President gives the SOTU (the State of the Union Address), he is reading from a scrolling teleprompter, and the words will go on the historical record.
But when you and I speak, much of what we communicate comes from our voices, our faces and gestures. We create an impression, which can stand guard over our content, or it can do the opposite, undermine our perfectly good talk.
Socrates said that written words are the children of absent fathers: their dads aren’t around to help them explain themselves.
He complained, “If you question [written words], wanting to know about their sayings, they always say only one and the same thing.”
He was into dialogue and discussion, and worried about the unresponsiveness of written words.
Presenting is a high risk activity, so most audiences will forgive you if you don’t do well, because deep down they know “there but for the grace of God go I.”
But when you make written boo-boos, big or small, they stick out, and undermine your credibility and professionalism.
So read this infographic. At this moment in time, it may not seem that people still value good writing. But I promise you, a wrong word on a document sticks out, and can kill an interview, a job, and a career.
