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From: chuck@melmac.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Effects of poor writing?
Message-ID: <1982@trantor.harris-atd.com>
Date: 27 Apr 89 12:02:42 GMT
References: <39131@bbn.COM>
Sender: news@trantor.harris-atd.com
Reply-To: chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano)
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Organization: Advanced Technology Dept., Harris Corp., Melbourne, Fl.
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In article <39131@bbn.COM> presnik@bbn.com (Philip Resnik) writes:
>Does anyone know of a study demonstrating that poor quality 
>prose loses potential business?  (For example, one could
>imagine a study showing that, given pairs of prose descriptions,
>people tend to choose products whose description does not contain
>grammatical errors.)

     I would also like to see any such studies.  I know that personally,
whenever I see spelling or grammar errors I tend to downgrade the
competency of the writer.  Reading net postings really makes me cringe!
I can understand mistakes involving big and/or little-used words, but to see
things like "mispealt" is horrifying.  It seems that the worst spelling comes
from college students.  Perhaps those of us who have made it into the real 
world have learned that spelling does indeed make a difference.

     Any resume that crosses my desk with spelling or grammar errors is usually
instantly rejected.  I once read a resume where the applicant listed Hewlett
Packard as a previous employer and spelled Hewlett as "Hewlit".  I round-filed
that resume at that point.

     People have argued that I am overly critical of these mistakes.  I contend
that a resume is the first impression you make on a potential employer.
If you don't care enough to get it right, how can I believe that you'll
care enough to get your work done right on a regular basis?  Correct spelling
shows attention to detail and a level of discipline that I value in an
employee.

     I know that when I see a misspelled word, it just "seems wrong".  Have 
there been any studies on how people determine spelling?  I would also find 
that interesting.

Chuck Musciano			ARPA  : chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com
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