You may think of it as common sense when I tell you to check your spelling. I almost don’t want to say it. I can already feel someone with a vendetta against me mocking the advice here by quoting my hypothetically saying, “check your spelling is so obvious, even to idiots; these tips are for those who don’t even rise to the level of idiocy.” No offense intended to idiots, of course.
Of course, as obvious as this piece of advice is (even to idiots), if most people did it, then I wouldn’t need to be here today. But fewer than 50% of people I’ve worked with actually do this. Which is why I am here.
So, I’m not suggesting “check your spelling.” Rather, I’m suggesting four different, but related things.
First, the reason why someone wants to pay you is for you to worry about the details. If you get spelling or grammar wrong, it sends a strong message that you are not detail-oriented. It leaves your client, or anyone else you work with, thinking “if they’re not paying attention to the details of their spelling or grammar, then what other details are they not paying attention to?” And your client or boss thinking that will make them start sniffing around for other mistakes you’ve made, which you want to avoid at all costs. When people want to sniff to find problems, they will. No one’s perfect. That’s why I even adjusted my wording in this little piece here to try to avoid the hypothetical problem of the hypothetical guy with a vendetta against me mentioned above!
Let me be clearer: the difference between people who earn a little vs. those who earn a lot is based on how much attention they pay to details—the right details. So, the way to display to clients and managers that you’re valuable is by paying attention to the details. And the best details to start with are the obvious ones right in front of their face, like the spelling and grammar of the emails you send them. Think of spelling and grammar as two signals—much like your clothing and everything else you do or say.
Second, I’m not suggesting checking your spelling, nor double-checking your spelling, but triple-checking it. Yes, it’s that important, it’s the first signal anyone who is receiving your signals will receive and process. But not just that, humans tend to miss spelling mistakes. And when you’ve re-read a text, it becomes harder and harder to notice the mistakes.
The Pro-Pro-Tip to triple check your spelling is, after the double-check, put it away for a few hours (or days) and then do your final check. That clears your mind enough to notice the errors you missed before.
Third, a technical tip: there are free tools out there to help you do this. I love Grammarly, a free plugin for both your phone and your laptop that automatically alerts you to spelling and grammar mistakes as you type. In fact, it just told me that “grammarly” is a spelling mistake—oh the irony—probably because I didn’t capitalize the “G.” Done!
Fourth and last, there are many situations in which you can break this rule—but break it consciously, not accidentally. If you’re working in your second or third or fourteenth language, then you will be given much more flexibility for your spelling and grammar mistakes. Or often you want to write in incorrect ways on purpose because you want to signal something. For example, if you want to position yourself as “cool,” then you should use the grammatical constructions and diction that the “cool kids” you’re modeling yourself after use—even if they don’t satisfy the rules of grammar according to Strunk & White. The laws of grammar you want to follow aren’t necessarily the laws that your elementary school teacher taught you, but the laws that will result in the wording of your messages to convey the unspoken messages you want them to. And you probably don’t want to convey the message: “I don’t pay attention to details.”
I read an article in the Wall Street Journal more than a decade ago that has stood out in my mind. There’s a stereotype that for any job opening from a major company, the company gets hundreds of resumes—making it very difficult to get hired. But this forgotten HR manager, in this article, made the argument that for every 100 resumes that come in, 80 of them have typos in them, and they’re automatically thrown out, because who would want to hire someone who doesn’t even pay attention to the details in their very own resume? Of the remaining 20, at least 10 of them are just off-target and didn’t read the job description well. Of the remaining 10, at least 5 of them just aren’t qualified enough for the role or don’t have a minimum requirement. So, ultimately, you’re not competing against 99 other people, but just 4 other people. While I always remembered that article because it taught me that there is a lot less competition than I thought, it’s useful to remember in this context here for another reason: that 4 out of 5 resumes are just chucked using grammar. And for good reason.
But don’t forget, of course: any spelling mistakes you find in this book were put there by me 100% on purpose, just to test to see if you catch them. Of course.
