What’s happening to the quality of written communication? I’ve seen a lot of blog posts recently that were poorly written – not in regards to content or opinion but full of grammatical errors like inconsistency or misuse of commas, incorrect verb conjugations or sentences that end with prepositions. These are the little rules that are learned in grade school and junior high. Are we, as adults, really falling below that level?

I attended the Georgia Governor’s Tourism Conference last week and my favorite takeaway was a quote from Peter Shankman:

It’s so true. People are using text lingo in emails and tweets (when there are plenty of characters available). Others omit necessary punctuation like periods at the end of sentences. I’ve even seen this on Facebook by people who run businesses! And how many times have you seen a “Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse any typos.” disclaimer on emails? Is it really too much to proofread an email before sending it? Yes, I’ve fallen into this category several times and it’s one thing to have typos in an email to family or friends but not taking the time to proof emails that are sent to business contacts is just not professional. Where is the standard?

With blog posts, are we rushing so much to get fresh content out that they don’t take the time to proof or edit our work? I sometimes spend hours drafting blog posts, going over each paragraph several times to word each sentence perfectly, making sure they don’t run on too long but are long enough, using groups of three in a series to help enhance important points and looking at line breaks to make sure everything flows smoothly.

Do you remember analyzing sentences with sentence diagrams?

I have a very analytical mind and maybe I’m on the extreme end but as marketing professionals, have we just become too lazy to care? And what does that say about our work ethic or our standards? If we don’t allow typos on client work, how can we allow them on internal documents or emails? Wrong is wrong, no matter the situation.

Raven Tools recently published this Four signs of lazy marketing – and how to fix them post. I completely agree with their points so be sure to read the post. What saddens me is that so many professionals are producing work that’s not even at this level yet.

Let’s take a stand on this issue. For the rest of September, create a personal habit of proofing EVERYTHING that you post or send. Whether blog posts, tweets, emails or text messages, take the extra time needed to make sure your content portrays your professionalism.

Are you with me?