Millions of dollars are lost each year because of bad grammar and commonly misspelled words, which could be avoided if it wasn’t for poor teaching. But it is hardly surprising, when modern society operates at breakneck speed, without taking a breath before it fires off the next meaningless tweet. Full of short-code and bad grammar, it bears little resemblance to the words in the Oxford Dictionary which comprise the English language.
Bad spelling may be acceptable for small children learning their language, but not when it comes to companies and small businesses operating online.
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Poor Teaching Raises Concerns
In 2011 – BBC News posted an article entitled – Spelling mistakes cost millions in lost online sales
Written by education correspondent Sean Coughlan who raises concerns which I have had for a long time. Eroding language skills are leading to serious communication breakdown. Bad spelling costs money.
I wrote about bad grammar in a post entitled – Could poor language skills lead to a breakdown in society?
My concerns go much deeper than typos that cost $millions. But Sean Coughlan’s observations are important, as they point to the root of the problems – Education.
Improving the education system must be the way to eradicate poor teaching and commonly misspelled words, which could be the downfall of many companies. Bad grammar costs $millions and can cut online sales by 50%. The UK is losing millions in lost revenue, and as more companies go online the problem will grow.
Children and their teacher at school in Chelsea, England, during a spelling lesson. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Spelling Mistakes Costs Companies $Millions in Lost Revenue
Online entrepreneur Charles Duncombe says that poor spelling is costing the UK millions of pounds in lost revenue for internet businesses.
Charles Duncombe says analysing website figures shows single spelling mistakes cost millions and can cut online sales in half. He says, when recruiting staff he has been “shocked at the poor quality of written English”. Then he says, sales figures suggest misspellings put off consumers who could have concerns about a website’s credibility.
The concerns were echoed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Its head of education and skills warned, too many employers had to invest in remedial literacy lessons for their staff.
Modern Business Depends on Old Fashioned Skills to Avoid Bad Grammar.
Mr Duncombe runs travel, mobile phones and clothing websites. He says that bad spelling costs money, and is a serious problem for the online economy. And it is costing the economy millions in lost revenue.
“Often these cutting-edge companies depend upon old-fashioned skills,” he says. Furthermore, “the struggle to recruit enough staff who can spell, means that this sector of the economy is not as efficient as it might be.”
Charles Duncombe
Shortcomings in the English Education System are a Problem
“I know that industry bemoaning the education system is nothing new, but it is becoming more and more of a problem, with more companies going online.”
Charles Duncombe
It is possible to identify the specific impact of a spelling mistake on sales, he says. When he measured the revenue per visitor to the tightsplease.co.uk website, he found revenue doubled, after an error was corrected.
“If you project this across the whole of internet retail, then millions of pounds worth of business is probably being lost each week. And it’s due to simple spelling mistakes,”
Director of the Just Say Please group.
If Misspelling Costs Millions, what’s the Solution?
Spelling is important to the credibility of a website. When there are underlying concerns about fraud and safety, then getting the basics right is essential. If a consumer is wary of spam or phishing efforts, a misspelt word could be a killer issue. When recruiting school and university leavers, Mr Duncombe found too many applications did not contain correct spelling.
“Some people even used text speak in their cover letter.”
Charles Duncombe
Even among those who appeared to be able to spell, he says that a written test, without access to a computer spellchecker, revealed further problems with incorrect spelling. Without a significant improvement in the education system, I can’t see how the problem will ever be resolved.
Authors have to be Mindful of Sloppy Writing
If you leave out a letter in a word by mistake, Pro-Writing Aid spellchecker will tell you. Or will it?
What if the word is manic and you write maniac, or there instead of their? Pro-Writing Aid knows those words are correct. If you are lucky you may get a nudge to say something might be wrong.
Authors know it’s easy to skip a word and not just a letter. That is why we read and re-read our manuscripts over and over until our eyes are stinging and our heads are spinning.
While the odd typo may not alter the meaning of a sentence, it can bug the reader, disrupt the flow of the story, and make you look unprofessional. But small errors, unless there are too many, are seldom fatal.
The real issues arise when poor writing renders text incomprehensible, ambiguous, and sends the wrong message. It happens all the time, as does the infuriating habit some people have of wasting hours by not answering a simple question. Usually because you ask two or three, and they are incapable of processing more than one in an email or other written communication.
Here is an Email Conversation that got me Nowhere.
My Question
I am trying to understand how to deal with removing unwanted posts without upsetting Google with 404’s.
When I do a permanent delete in a WordPress site I register a 410.
How do I do it in my xxxx site?
The Answer
I went ahead and reviewed your blog posts and see of course you have published multiple posts on the site. Refer to the following image: I did want to clear up somethings too, did you want to remove a blog post you have on your Blog from Google search results? If you would like to remove any blog posts from Google’s search results it’s best to re-submit your sitemap if they already have the page listed on their search results. You would of course want to delete the blog posts that you would want to remove prior. To submit your sitemap to Google please click on the link.
I see that you were contacting us from Thailand but have the site in English? Did you want to make the site multilingual? You can translate your content and have this as an option on your live site! There are other features on the account that we’d love to help with. Were you able to add everything you wanted on the site/ account? You can even make edits on the go with your phone! If this sounds interesting to your and had other questions on the account or endeavors you may want to go through feel free to ask as we may be able to help you further through your process.
I hope that this information was helpful.
My Reply
Thank you for the information.
However, you haven’t answered my question.
Can you please do so, or say if you don’t understand me.
So, checking and rechecking the written word is essential.
Facebook Tolerates Common Misspelling!
William Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, says: in some informal parts of the internet, such as Facebook, there is greater tolerance towards spelling and grammar.
“However, there are other aspects, such as a home page or commercial offering that are not among friends. It raises concerns over trust and credibility,” said Professor Dutton.
“In these instances, when a consumer might be wary of spam or phishing efforts, a misspelt word could be a killer issue.” Bad spelling costs money.
William Dutton
Unsatisfactory Basic Reading and Writing Skills
James Fothergill, the CBI’s head of education and skills, said: “Our recent research shows that 42% of employers are not satisfied with the basic reading and writing skills of school and college leavers. Almost half have had to invest in remedial training to get their staff’s skills up to scratch.”
“This situation is a real concern. The government must make the improvement of basic literacy and numeracy skills of all school and college leavers a top priority.”
James Fothergill
Hear, hear. I couldn’t agree more. As I discovered, Poetry is therapeutic and could help if it was an essential part of school ciriculums.
Final Thoughts
This article’s content leads me back to my post: Could poor language skills lead to a breakdown in society.
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Updated April 2024
