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About LinkBacksRead more.Online retailers are losing customers turned off by bad spelling.
Read more.Online retailers are losing customers turned off by bad spelling.
Shouldn't that be 'in'?Originally Posted by hexus
personally I prefer better descriptions:
Delicious irony
Shouldn't that be 'in'?
Similarly, this sentence needs another comma after "it seems to be agreed". That'll be 10p, please!The issue, it seems to be agreed is the growing acceptance of poor spelling and grammar in social circles, the results of which leak into business.
And the research is absolutely right: I simply won't buy from a website that can't even get basic spelling and grammar right.
The worst example of this I've seen recently wasn't even online - I went to an event at MediaCity last weekend and the display boards explaining the BBC's move to Salford had "it's" in a possessive sense. Twice. On huge display boards intended to be read the public. At the BBC's new flagship headquarters. I was staggered.
Spelling and grammar seems to be more a matter of effort and practice than education.
Personally, I disregard cosmetic errors in language. The most important factor for me, is that the pertinent details are accurate.
So surely this is easily solved by your CMS having a good spelling and grammar checker?
I've integrated Word's system into a peice of software before now just because it was by far and away the best around.
I mean is he really saying he can't afford an MS office license per worker?
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
If you wanted a good good spelling and grammar checker, why use Word?
Seriously though, as a professional writer, if you rely on Word, you WILL come unstuck, sooner or later. It's a tool, just like a chisel. I mean, give a master carpenter a good, sharp chisel and you have a recipe for a masterpiece. Give me a good sharp chisel and you have a recipe for a visit to A&E.
Word will spot typos and some grammar issues, but by no means all.
You wood think that Word wood be able to spot the mistakes in this sentence, wouldn't you?
What about ...
I said that that that that that man said was a mistake? Try getting Word to punctuate ....erm .... that.
baius (25-07-2011)
It definitely puts me off a site if they've got misspellings. I'm trusting their description of an item, and if they can't spell a word correctly, why on earth should I trust that they've listed that model number correctly? Maybe they actually meant to write G1 instead of G2, on an Intel X25-M for example. I'd rather buy from somewhere that appears to have some credibility.
Actually, crowdsourcing your editing requirements is probably even cheaper. Automated grammar and spell checking has very serious limitations (several of which have been highlighted already). A real person doesn't, and can do proper proof reading and make sensible suggestions for re-writing clunky phaseology (like Saracen's multiple that's). You'll get better results, more reliably, and I believe services start from around a quid per hundred words. Stick your entire catalogue of product descriptions through that and it's going to cost you less than a single full office license...
You know, I really did think it would be able to, so I tried it. Sure enough, Word 2007 thinks that sentence is perfectly OK. I always thought Word could tell the difference between nouns and verbs...You wood think that Word wood be able to spot the mistakes in this sentence, wouldn't you?
Clunky?
CLUNKY!!!
Moi?
Who'da thunk it?
Andeh13 (14-07-2011)
Word 2010 gets woodActually, crowdsourcing your editing requirements is probably even cheaper. Automated grammar and spell checking has very serious limitations (several of which have been highlighted already). A real person doesn't, and can do proper proof reading and make sensible suggestions for re-writing clunky phaseology (like Saracen's multiple that's). You'll get better results, more reliably, and I believe services start from around a quid per hundred words. Stick your entire catalogue of product descriptions through that and it's going to cost you less than a single full office license...
You know, I really did think it would be able to, so I tried it. Sure enough, Word 2007 thinks that sentence is perfectly OK. I always thought Word could tell the difference between nouns and verbs...
Gotcha.....
You know, I really did think it would be able to, so I tried it. Sure enough, Word 2007 thinks that sentence is perfectly OK. I always thought Word could tell the difference between nouns and verbs...
I must admit, I typed that post, then hesitated on the button and thought "No, you dope. Try it in Word first, just in case ....". 'Cos I knew some other pedant wood. I mean, would.
I'm not saying rely on it, just that it fixes most complaints, as someone (who you might have noticed) has a very strong dislexic trend, I just can't tell the difference, its the one that hides it best.If you wanted a good good spelling and grammar checker, why use Word?
Seriously though, as a professional writer, if you rely on Word, you WILL come unstuck, sooner or later. It's a tool, just like a chisel. I mean, give a master carpenter a good, sharp chisel and you have a recipe for a masterpiece. Give me a good sharp chisel and you have a recipe for a visit to A&E.
I've delivered consultancy reports which for me have a horrorfying number of words, with very few edits. Given how retarded I am, thats good.
If you have a better tool suggestion I'd love to give it a spin frequently my words are so miss spelt it can't guess it!No, but I doubt any solution will. English is far too flawed.
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
I'm sure that bad spelling doesn't help web sites sell stuff but more worrying is how shonky, half-baked 'studies' get treated as gold-plated gospel just because they're interesting.
"he measured the revenue per visitor to the tightsplease.co.uk website and found that the revenue was twice as high after an error was corrected" ... "If you project this across the whole of internet retail, then millions of pounds worth of business is probably being lost each week due to simple spelling mistakes"
Well that's scientific enough for me! I say he's underestimated it, it's probably quadrillions of pounds.
Didn't use it on that post, then?
Seriously though, I actually agree with you that it's a useful tool, and I'm not aware of anything that's actually better. Really, I was getting at the line
I've added the bold.So surely this is easily solved by your CMS having a good spelling and grammar checker?
What I was really suggesting is that while you can certainly use a spell/grammar checker to spot and eliminate a lot of errors, never make the mistakes of thinking that either, it gets them all, or even that it's necessarily right.
My spelling and grammar are actually pretty good, not that you'd necessarily know from my forum posts, largely because while my spelling is pretty good, I can't claim the same for my typing. But I have come across occasions (and I can't think of one tight now) there a spell/grammar checker has picked out my correct usage and suggested something that was either incorrect or, while correct, wasn't what I meant or said.
It is, therefore, a (very) useful tool but not a 100% substitute for knowing what you're doing.
So .... will it reduce the incidence of numpty mistakes? Sure. Will it "solve" the problem, "easily" or not? Not entirely. It's a lot better than not using anything at all, but its not a complete solution.
Oh, and as a dyslexic, I grant you, it's a very useful tool. If you need to avoid making the type of mistake that dyslexics make very easily, it's a HUGE time-saver in finding them. In fact, I say that rather than "very useful" as a tool, it's pretty much indispensable when writing documents where accuracy matters. But that also makes my previous point more important .... it doesn't always get it right, so don't be too trusting of it, when it matters.
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