Spelling and Grammar

It seems to be a trending topic this week in the circles I'm in about grammar and spelling. So I thought I'd air my pet peeve as well.

There is nothing worse to me than receiving an e-mail that is so badly worded and with the incorrect use of grammar. I do understand that while English is the most commonly spoken language in the world that a number of its speakers are either second or third language English speakers. However with today's computers and the internet there really is no need for bad spelling and grammar. In fact those e-mails I get with incorrect grammar just confirm to me that the person has no consideration for what they are doing or who will end up reading their e-mail.

The classic for me was an e-mail I received for a business from China looking to get one of my clients to use their services. The opening paragraph of the e-mail reads as follows "We are a facotry about 300 workers.We have a long-standing experience in all kinds of knitting, & printing in all washes, designs, constructions & specifications. Like T-shirt, polo shirt ,singlet ,kid's wear, sleepwear, casual wear and sports wear."

Now firstly any decent spell checker would/should have picked up that "factory" is incorrectly spelt. Then can someone please explain how they can get some of the commas right and then mess up on some of them as well. What does that say to me, and this doesn't matter what language you speak, it says that you didn't even bother to read what you had typed or you would have picked up the grammar errors at the very least.

If you are not comfortable in the ability of your English when having business dealings then why not consider hiring a VA who can at the very minimum proof the file to make sure that the grammar is correct. Also please always remember to use your spell checker.

What is going to happen to the e-mail I mentioned above, well it went straight into the Deleted Items folder never to see the light of day again.