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Zeichick’s Take: Speling misteaks mattter


By Alan Zeichick


 Alan Zeichick
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July 26, 2011 —  (Page 1 of 2)
When my friends and family visit restaurants, one of our favorite games is “Spot the typos on the menu.” Now, I don’t claim to be the best proofreader in the world, but spelling and grammar errors jump out at me. And while I make tons of typos in my own writing and e-mails, it’s because I’m often rushing and careless, not because I don’t know how to spell the word.

A typo on a restaurant menu elicits a chuckle or two—and that’s all. However, one study has shown that spelling errors on e-commerce websites can drive away business.

Similarly, nothing makes a commercial e-mail scream “scam!” more than typos. Are you going to trust a half-off offer from your favorite coupon purveyor or an important notice from your bank if something is obviously spelled wrong?

In a recent BBC News story, “Spelling mistakes ‘cost millions’ in lost online sales,” the reporter said that “Sales figures suggest misspellings put off consumers who could have concerns about a website's credibility,” and he claimed that typos on one site cut sales in half.

The BBC story quotes William Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, as saying, "In these instances, when a consumer might be wary of spam or phishing efforts, a misspelt word could be a killer issue.”

Okay, I’m sure that we all agree that customer-facing websites and e-mail messages should have good grammar and spelling. What’s the process? Does your development team have one? Who writes all the Web copy, and who checks and proofreads your websites and e-mail messages to make sure that the copy is clean? What about database entries, such as product names or descriptions?

The BBC story blames poor education for the proliferation of typos on websites, as well as an increased informality on the Internet. Maybe that’s part of it. Certainly not all programmers are good spellers, and when a coder is in programming mode, he or she may not be in proofreading mode.



Related Search Term(s): spelling

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