Dot Your I and Cross Your T

I receive large batches of e-mails and memos daily—many from industry executives and leaders from other areas of business. A phenomenon I’ve noticed taking place has been the propensity of spelling errors made by upper and top management. The misuse of apostrophes and commas; saying “their" vs. “there" vs. “they’re"; using “to" when it should be “too"; and “who" vs. “whom". Those are just a few.

I often wonder how these people rose to the top of their respective companies not understanding the use of proper English and grammar. Maybe it is who you know?

I think it’s time for business executives to consider every comma, double check those apostrophes and diligently look up how to spell difficult words. By the way, last time I checked every computer has spell check; why not use it?

I’m in favor of mistake-free memos, letter-perfect reports and impeccable proposals. Impeccable proposals? Don’t get me started. That’s an entirely different blog entry.