Spelling and grammar is important

Spelling and grammar in marketing is important, but copywriting and perfect punctuation don't come naturally to all. Especially me. Is it that important? If the message is clear perfection is not important. Feedback and improvement is more so.

Words are no joke!

I've been made to feel so bad about my writing in the past that it convinced me I should no longer write anything again. Consistent negative feedback made it so I never wanted to try through fear, the ordeal it created to change small details was not worth the emotional distress. Writing standards must however be upheld on the front end of a website and should remain consistent, but does every sentence have to be perfect?

You may make jokes around spelling and grammar police but please don't. While it's a joke for you many have scarred memories as simple requests for feedback are recalled as ordeals that turn people off from writing. Writing, something that should give freedom to people, to someone asking for feedback its negative delivery is a form of silencing them, mocking a typo or an autocorrect not spotted turned into a meme is strange and cruel ridicule and can be hard to shake.

Nothing can make you lose credibility more quickly and seem uneducated than a spelling mistake

Roslyn Petelin, University of Queensland

This sentiment is false, if a spelling mistake, a mistake is the thing you are judging someone's credibility on. I suggest that is a poor way of judging credibility, you are reading the words closely but missing the message. A scientist writing about climate change, makes a spelling mistake, brilliant in a field of science that you or I will never understand, do they lose credibility in your eyes?

Words are important!

Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly—they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

To illuminate your point, deliver it directly to the reader's mind to trigger an action and spread the words to colleagues and friends, which means they need to connect. Too many mistakes and your message gets lost, so you have to take care. Truly are taking care when giving feedback, are taking care when you write, speak, listen and read? In all aspects of communication be careful not to judge because it is easy not to get them quite right every time.

Writing is artful

What is it about writing that makes many people think they can comment? We all write and many people will be able to go explain common grammar rules, and seemingly never miss an apostrophe, make a typo or spellcheck to the wrong word, this is to me a functional writer.

Great blog and news articles, social posts or product descriptions should not only convey the basic message but also you can see the writer's emotional belief in the topic. Obey the strict rules of writing and you generate a communications piece, go further and generate a message with how YOU write and disobey find a style.

Working with copywriters who truly understand their craft and are not simply regurgitating what they remember from high school English language about rules they half recall, will change your perspective on what good writing is. Take feedback from these people your writing will improve.

Most people don't understand what they are talking about even if they know just a little more than you, and without some word blindness that makes you miss simple errors their writing compared to professionals looks a little better than the writing you asked for a quick check on.

Judge content learn from mistakes

Sadly your writing mistakes will be judged, accept feedback but don't let the negativity in, keep writing, however, content like blogs are often monetised and I recall writing them at a former employer and looking at them as ways of creating traffic and conversions. When the idea was clear, the message was on point even if the writing was not perfect on the metrics that count they were effective.

Take home message do not let perfectionism get in the way of publication, or progress get comfortable with good enough.