I came across not one but two articles this morning about poor grammar –just like buses they all come at once. While I profess to be far from perfect when it comes to grammar, I do agree with the sentiments of what’s being said.

The first Forbes article goes into detail about why grammar counts at work. I think it certainly does count. Shortening words might be great (not g8) for texting but has no place in professional emails. And although twitter has helped us to perfect the art of saying a lot in 140 characters, you just look silly providing a quotation or well-crafted proposal in a short burst of ‘Here u go.’

That article was actually inspired by this other blog from the Harvard Business Review which is about not hiring anyone who uses poor grammar. I really get that. I have hired quite a few staff over the last years and I cannot count how many CVs for consideration have been instantly rejected due to poor grammar, typos and wrong/no punctuation. A shockingly large common mistake is using lower case ‘i’ in sentences (speaking about yourself). Why wouldn’t you get someone’s help to proofread a document which may have a profound effect on your life? It does actually make my blood boil.

I shall end with one last pet peeve – wrong or excessive use of punctuation. In particular, it is the use of multiple exclamation marks. One exclamation mark makes a point. Two or more exclamation marks while emphasizing the point further are mostly just rather rude (yes I know ‘that’s great!!!’ is saying something nice it is still not good business etiquette).

So do please think about what you are saying and how you write it – it really can make a difference in how you are perceived. I’d like to think I’m anything but old fashioned – but in business, good grammar, spelling and punctuation still counts for me. And if there is bad grammar in this blog, I would happily be politely corrected!