“Spelling isn’t all that important. It’s the essence of the message that matters.”
How many times have I heard that line? Of course, it’s not without merit. After all, if someone can understand your misspelled messages the way you intended them to, then it served its purpose in the exchange of ideas well.
Here’s the problem, though. Just because you can get away with spelling errors sometimes, it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to pull it off every time. In many situations, in fact, spelling errors can be the death knoll on your professional and business efforts.
Suppose you’re the HR head for a large organization. Would you really hire a guy who is so passive he submits his application documents without so much as running a spell check?
Say, you’re a business owner and just received a proposal from an account manager for products you are sourcing. If the email you got from the person regularly contain misspellings, how would you feel? Do you think they really value your business that much if a simple pass through a language software isn’t even in order?
If Coca-Cola came out with a large billboard tomorrow with a misspelling, what kind of image will they project to the world? Now, think about your own documents and how people perceive you if you can’t even get basic spelling right. Spelling mistakes cost you – probably more than you ever imagined.