Comments on: Do Typos Really Matter?

By: OMG! A Typo! | Web Business Woman

OMG! A Typo! | Web Business Woman — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 06:06:51 +0000

[...] wrote to me about it, I was disturbed to see it today, but…in the end, the post is intact, I know my fingers sometimes type things I don't want them to – and what's up with that?- so I did not fix the post; had I found the typo within a [...]

By: OMG! A Typo! | Web Business Woman

OMG! A Typo! | Web Business Woman — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:07:40 +0000

[...] wrote to me about it, I was disturbed to see it today, but…in the end, the post is intact, I know my fingers sometimes type things I don’t want them to – and what’s up with that?- so I did not fix the post; had I found the typo within a [...]

By: Wyatt Brown

Wyatt Brown — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:27:48 +0000

“Do Typos Really Matter?”
Let us review the comments above:

- At university, they diminished grade-scoring
- In investment pitches and hiring, they result in rejections
- In client-dealings, they diminish perceived value
- In professional publication, they are auto-corrected
- In social media, they lower perceived social
aptitude

Do typos really matter….

By: Human Typo

Human Typo — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:26:58 +0000

Typos can be:

1. Really, really embarrassing.
2. A source of brilliance.
3. Not that big of a deal
4. Kind of funny
5. A stupid thing to argue about in emails with clients

But usually, typos are just something we all try to avoid because we really do care about how we communicate with others.

By: Blair

Blair — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:43:33 +0000

I’m going to straddle both sides of the line on this one. While I agree with Stephanie, avoiding typos completely isn’t only unrealistic, it’s far from natural. We’re human.

As humans, I feel we hold ourselves to a higher standard when a job or the like is on the line, and tend to give things a second glance more often. But when it’s something personal, we tend to be a bit more lax and shoot from the hip. At least that’s how I tend to operate

There will always be repeat offenders and those who don’t care, we just have to be better than that. Unfortunately, being better requires additional time, and time isn’t always something we have when posting on the fly or trimming a message. Can’t we let Twitter be an informal medium, yo?

By: stephanie (LSL/Bold Avenue)

stephanie (LSL/Bold Avenue) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:37:36 +0000

Avoiding typos altogether would be ideal. However, when people are posting on the fly, it’s not realistic. I would rather read the occasional misspelled word or mistyped character than miss out on someone’s quick updates and random musings, because they are too concerned about typos to tweet.

While it’s true that people will judge everything you do and say, Twitter is not a resume. It is, for the most part, a conversational and informal medium. As such, there are many aspects of Twitter communication that are more important than an accidental keystroke.

By: Mike Jones

Mike Jones — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:09:15 +0000

I’m not a professional copywriter by any means but reading a sloppy or grammatically incorrect tweet, blog post, headline, etc. tells me one major thing about that person/company above all else – they don’t want to take their time to execute well.

This might be alright for reading my friend’s rants about his job but if I’m going to buy from or partner with that person in any kind of meaningful way in the future this would make me hesitate.

I want to know you think things through and execute well. Even better if you can do that quickly. If you can’t, that’s okay too. You’ll just output less crap than the rest of us.

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:59:25 +0000

Hmmm. This is a tough one for me. As an editor, I’m constantly correcting typos, and as a former hiring manager, I would automatically toss any resume that contained a mistake. (One of the worst offenders broke four AP Stylebook rules in a resume submitted for a job that specifically required “proficiency in AP Style.”)

I completely agree that if you’re in a particular field that requires expertise in writing or editing, it is important that everything you communicate be above reproach. But I confess I’ve relaxed my standards for friends, family, acquaintances on FB and Twitter — pretty much anyone who doesn’t write or edit for a living. (Strangely, I found people did not always appreciate receiving corrected versions of their e-mails.)

By: kim

kim — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:42:22 +0000

Thanks for finding that! Any other comments about the post?

By: Blair

Blair — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:03:45 +0000

I found a typo (missing word) in the paragraph below, but something tells me you might have done IT on purpose. Hmmm…

Being transparent, honest, and open is not reflected in the typos you make. Sure, it adds a human element to something, but human error is probably not the human element you’re looking to get across. There are better ways to demonstrate transparency, and that is in the content of what is you’re saying. A typo-filled tweet consisting of valuable information that adequately portrays your company’s personality and brand might actually be saying something other than what you intended.