AIBU in thinking emails from a company should be spelled correctly?

Hi Newatthis, politicians they don’t have time to answer critical emails, they’re too busy mending potholes.

I wonder if the reports you mention,Conni7,were accurate, well thought out, covered all that was required? Maybe the authors had some form of dyslexia - you never know, especially ‘many years ago’ when dyslexia and other word -related problems were not so readily recognised and accepted as they are today .

I worked as a Management Secretary many years ago, and have typed three or four page hand-written reports without a comma or full stop in them. Spelling was also atrocious. I felt my name should have been added to the credits, as I almost rewrote them. These were senior graduate people, so "There is no new thing under the sun"!

Oh dear, my late DH was a very poor speller (he admitted it himself), and always used to ask me to check every letter he sent, and every report for work he had to write, as he was never sure of himself. However he had a very high ranking, responsible and technical job in the Civil Service and later the police, and was entrusted with completing important assignments. He was a whizz with anything technical so long as it didn't involve writing.
Whereas I was completely the opposite, could spot a spelling mistake or bad grammar from the moon, but didn't know one end of a screwdriver or computer from the other!

Just checking my post now for spelling mistakes...... If there are any, I'll blame predictive text.....

I do many online competitions hence receive lots of newsletter emails, many of which have spelling/grammar mistakes. I usually fume to myself, but one day a few months ago received one which was "a birthday anniversary" one also announcing the prize winner of a competition and some "general knowledge facts" - several spelling and grammar mistakes in it. I emailed the Company pointing these out, saying they should proof read before sending them out, and had a lovely email back apologizing and agreeing with me (and they even sent me some of their products as a thank-you). Another one from someone else came during the advent competitions - the Forth day of instead of the Fourth day - no comment about the spelling in response to my email.

The 2 page leaflet we received from our Green Party candidate had a number of spelling mistakes on it. I emailed the candidate to let them know but got no response.

Totally agree, spelling nowadays is atrocious, one regularly seen on internet caravan pages is how many 'births' the vehicle has.
Another bugbear of mine is additional letters in a word, i.e. pRostrate cancer, restauraNteur to name a couple of the most obvious.

Love the 'sanity pad' curvygran made me laugh, I could do with some of those.

I think we all have things which grate on us, poor spelling is one of mine. If you showed me a page of accounts with glaring errors I would not be able to spot them.
I do think people who write letters or send emails on behalf of their firms should have a good working knowledge of the language and know how to check before sending the letter.

Oh dear , yet another thread with unjustified personal remarks . I thought this one would be different .

Yes, it gives a very poor impression, and to me indicates a sloppy attitude.

I’m pedantic enough to have been irritated by an email from Joules the other day - ‘There’s lots of....’.

I know it’s everywhere now, but ‘there is’ with a plural really winds me up!

Curvygran, protest away. Nowhere in my post did I imply or insinuate that all graduates are snobs. I had set the context quite clearly, and wrote of this particular company that refused to employ non-graduates, across the board, including support staff, regardless of their ability to produce good English. Therefore, "these" refer to the already identified group. Maybe one of the several graduates in your family can help you to understand what I wrote.

I think many people from overseas now work in customer services and, even though their grasp of the spoken language is good, they often lack writing/spelling skills in putting a letter together. Probably the same for Facebook posts.

You should have seen a letter that I received in the post from the Tax Office! It was shocking!

For those of us who are in danger of taking spelling and grammar a bit too seriously, remember that the dictionaries were and are written by people who are fallible, just like ourselves.

Bill Bryson's book on the English language is both funny and humbling.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/29.The_Mother_Tongue

A professional metal sign in a local trendy coffee bar “This way to the loo’s”. The loo’s what?!!!!!

Falls not fall ( I know ,I’m on a pedants’ site ! )

GrannieAnnie2010, as the mum of 3 graduates and married to one , I must protest. Not all graduates are ‘elite snobs’ . I’ve met hundreds of graduates over the years and not one of them fall into that bracket .

Espee. I’m sure you could have done it just as beautifully but I’m sure it made you feel good, I hope it did.

Daddima. Of course it was a mistake.

What is they say, small minds are captivated by trifles or something like that.

I too am a pedant and proud of it.

A stationery company once sent me an email encouraging me to buy one of their products and they couldn't spell "dictionary" or "Wednesday" correctly.

I was looking for a diary and sent a complaint about their email asking how I would know that their diaries aren't full of spelling mistakes.

I know that the English language is inconsistent with spelling (eg cough, bough, although, rough, etc) but young brains can cope with this. Perhaps primary schools don't have spelling tests any more.

I worked as a temporary secretary while looking for something permanent. The position I was filling was in fact vacant but they couldn't offer me that job on a permanent basis as it was company policy to employ only graduates, of which I'm not. I can't begin to tell you how much of my time was spent correcting the spelling and grammar errors of these 'elite' snobs. "To all intensive purposes" was what finished me off, and I gave my two days' notice.

Encourage children to read books! They will then be good at spelling without all the hard slog, and won't even realise that they are learning. But they will be.

I once complained about a Junior's spelling at work, and was told, 'She's got the spell-checker!' Yes, she did have. But she still spelled 'tow path' 'toe path'!

Today’s prize for tact goes to @Daddima. Well done. I was mulling over how to bring up the missspelling (sic) but you did it beautifully.

Nightsky2
Consultants /Lawyers dictate their correspondence to a secretary/PA. Incorrect spelling is the fault of sec/pa. May be a different ball game should there not be a sec /pa.?

From a reformed pedant, things I've learned as a 60 something that have made me more accepting of mistakes, including my own:-

Some people dictate their emails as they are unable to use their hands, spelling mistakes are not their mistakes (try it some time).

People have dyslexia.

Typos happen.

Too few staff working in a busy office and none of these people actually learned to touch type so will make mistakes but time constraints stop them checking things properly. Plus the staff are tired as are always overworked. Autocorrect has changed some words to Americanised spelling.

Some people become unwell with illnesses that affect their cognitive abilities, spelling suddenly becomes confusing, the person is ill and tired but is under pressure to get something finished and doesn't see own mistakes. (Might be you one day, it's happened to me).

Reading too many American novels on a Kindle causing self doubt when spelling certain words.

The list is endless. If you understand what someone is actually trying to convey, does it really matter? However, I would expect letters from schools, universities, solicitors' offices and professional bodies to not contain mistakes.

One last thing worth remembering - some misspellings are indicative of scams, be discerning in judging this but if in doubt then regard it as such until you know otherwise.

Now that everyone can communicate this way, the true level of literacy becomes evident. Spent years as (would you believe it) a school secretary - correcting everything the headmaster wrote - wonder now why I bothered - should have let his stupidity show.