Torn Underwear Just Won’t Do For Your Blog

In recent blog posts I talked about making your viewpoint clear to readers of your blog (see Evel Meets Good Rapper-Blogger Kanye West). Now I need to follow my own advice on a somewhat touchy blogging topic…

One big debate among bloggers and business owners is whether correct spelling and proper grammar really matter in blogs.  After all (as I myself have stressed), your blog is supposed to reveal the “real you”!

Well, the “Real Me” has a very real opinion on the subject of grammar and spelling, I must admit. Allow me an analogy: 

I don’t know whether mothers are still doing this nowadays, but my friends and I remember being warned by our mothers to wear clean, un-torn underwear “in case you get in a car accident” (my own mother would add a “God forbid!” at the end of the sentence). The maternal moral of the story, I surmise, was that slovenliness might cause us to be judged in an unfavorable light by bystanders or emergency medical personnel.

Todd Hunt, the nationally known speaker on communication, adheres to my mom’s philosophy in the arena of language use.  In January’s “Hunt’s Headlines”, Todd makes three requests.  Can we please, he asks,

1. Use the correct tense of “shrink”.  “Amazon’s profits have shrunk” (not “have shrank”).

2. Use “lay” and “lie” appropriately.  “The baby was lying on the floor.” (not “laying”, unless it was a chicken depositing eggs!)

3. Stop using “way” in place of “much”. “Coke is much better than Pepsi.” (not “way” better!)

I found at least one blogger who agrees with me that correct is much better than incorrect when it comes to grammar and spelling in blogs. “People have said that grammar and spelling don’t convey intelligence,” Carl Mattius says, “But they do convey something.  If you’re not willing to take the time to properly type out what you’re trying to say, why should anyone waste time trying to read it?”  Here’s the part I love: “If you care about something, you should do a good job of it.”

My sentiments exactly.  Your business blog represents you and your business to the world.  As Carl Mattius points out, “It’s a respect thing.  Respect yourself and your ideas enough to give them their proper meaning.”

P.S. This is your mother talking!  Don’t you DARE leave this house in torn underwear or in underwear that has shrank in the wash.  Why, your reputation will be laying on the floor!