E-mail is really a great thing. I think that we are able to communicate and share information with people all over the world on a rapid and efficient way—all because of e-mail and the internet. However, since everyone is communicating with e-mail now, this means that most people are just typing and sending, and this results in a steady stream of typos and mistakes. If you think that misspellings and typos in your e-mail are not affecting your reputation or your business career, you may be in for a surprise.
Recently, I received a placement for an advertising order and the text for the ad was fraught with misspellings and typos. We had to actually re-work and contact the advertiser to clarify some of the items in the ad and each and every one of the problems was due to typos. It created more labor than was necessary AND it influenced our opinion of the advertiser. I often get e-mails with letters and words missing and, while it is understandable in the world of fast typing and internet, it interferes with being able to get work done.
I think the solution is to either compose your e-mails in a word processing software program where you can run the spelling and grammar check, and then paste them into an actual e-mail, OR make sure you are using an e-mail program with Spellcheck and really use the Spellcheck before you send off the e-mail. It’s worth taking the time to make sure that your written communications are clear and professional. Keep in mind that in today’s business world, you may never even meet the business contact or colleague face-to-face and e-mail will be your only means of forging a relationship—mistakes, misspellings, and bad grammar will not elicit confidence in your abilities.
See Also: Slow Down When Leaving a Message! and Using E-mail to Promote Your Business