With over 900 candidates applying for a single job, an application with the words ‘im’, ‘u’, and ‘all so’, instead of ‘I’m’, ‘you’ and ‘also’, will instantly remove any possibility of an interview. Hopes dashed and time wasted.
These were standout examples of textitis from a recent job trawl, but far more common was a general sloppiness in usage of the lower case ‘i’ for the first person, omitting indefinite articles (‘I have experience as receptionist’), lack of command of commas, full stops, and, you’ve guessed it, apostrophes (‘GCSE math’s’ – aargh!). The claim of one applicant to be good at ‘multitaking’ raised a grin – presumably it’s the ability to perform several tasks at once except spelling.
But it’s most likely that these were not unintelligent young people, simply ones whose spelling, grammar and punctuation had never been corrected, whether at school by teachers or at home by parents.
It‘s worrying, more so when they possess a B or C in GCSE English Language, but the relevance here is the fact that readers can’t see writers – the reader can only form their opinions from the words the writer puts before them.
Substitute ‘reader’ for ‘customer’, ‘client’, ‘critic’ or ‘potential partner’ and when those words appear on your company’s website, PowerPoint presentation, brochure or advertisement, then the writer becomes the most important person in your organisation.
The point: No writing should be trivial or throwaway – if it’s worth writing, it’s worth checking.
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