English or American English (a different beast) is not my native language even though my brain after 18 some years here in the US has English programmed as the default language as I realized recently when thinking about things I wanted to mention in a letter to my mother (to be written in French) and all that came to my mind where English sentences.

In either language, bad spelling makes me cringe.
Could bad spelling be worse than body odor?

In all my years in the restaurant field, I noticed that many American born chefs do not know how to spell?
It can be embarrassing on a menu.
It can sometimes be so bad that you would not have a clue what specific words stand for. They almost need to be translated.

In the wider world of work, I am sometimes amazed that certain people in the marketing, press relation, communication field cannot write in proper English.

In the past couple of days, words jumped at me from the screen while checking e-mails and news stories.

To put it simply, is bad spelling making you look unprofessional when your chosen field is marketing and communication?

According to Bad spelling 'puts off employers (BBC, August 2006), "a study by Hertfordshire University found bad English alienated 77% of the 515 companies it spoke to - more than twice the 34% annoyed by CV exaggerations."

Obviously we all slip sometime, I am not talking perfection here.

On language for Monday Work Etiquette # 74

Previously: Sick! Keep your Virus to Yourself! Stay Home