Does Grammar Matter?

On a recent flight, I watched Contagion – complimentary (not complementary) thanks to a late departure. In the movie, Elliott Gould’s character says, “Blogging isn’t writing. It’s graffiti with punctuation.” Besides being funny, it also made me think about the role of punctuation, grammar (not grammer), spelling, and writing in different formats. I probably think about this more than others, but bear (not bare) with me.

In school, correct grammar, spelling, source citations, and other rules benefit you via a good grade, assuming your content is meaningful. But once you crossed the tassel on your graduation cap, did the need for English rules disappear? With specification documents replacing term papers, email (not e-mail) replacing memos, instant messaging (IM) replacing phone calls, and texting replacing face-to-face conversations, did all the rules change?

Communications are prevalent for most business roles. Statistics for two (not 2):

• Leaders spend 80% (not eighty) of their time communicating.
• Project managers spend 90% (not ninety) of their time communicating.

Some of this is verbal, thus oral communication skills are key. However, since you can’t be everywhere, the best leaders and PMs can also express themselves in writing.

Writing enables you to form ideas, share messages, and shape conversations. It’s (not its) an opportunity to reinforce a message again and again. However, if people don’t read your message, you’ve lost that chance. Master the art of writing by doing it often – find your voice and hone the mechanics.

Cardinal rule: Read what you wrote, read it again, and reread! Crafting a useful message takes a long time. As Mark Twain said, “I would have written a shorter letter if I’d had more time.”

Refine your ideas; edit for grammar, spelling, and punctuation; ensure the meaning is accurate and reflects your thoughts; and check your tone.

Business documents: Clear, accurate writing is non-negotiable. How confident would you be of an author’s (not authors’) other skills if a document was full of poor English? Proofreading, peer reviews, and spell- and grammar-check will clean up most errors.

Email: A more casual voice is acceptable and typos happen, but pay attention to tone and always read, edit, and run spell-check before sending. Today I received an email that was sent to a large distribution that said, “…we thank you for your patients and cooperation.” Although I work for DFCI, I do not have any patients, only patience.

IM and Texts: These methods are as close to talking as you get, are temporary, may have length limits, and get immediate responses. “i am here. where R U? will grab table 4 2” can seem awkward but is perfectly acceptable. Just consider your recipients’ styles.

Blogs: Where does that leave blogs, which sparked this topic? Blogs are casual and conversational. They are online, so short paragraphs are preferred. But they are published and have your name and reputation on them, so don’t ignore good habits. Get people to comment on your thoughts instead of getting confused, distracted, giving up, or judging you based on your grammar.

BONUS: English rules learned in this one blog:

1. Homophones are words that are spelled differently but sound the same:
   Complimentary = given as a free gift or courtesy; polite flattery
   Complementary = completes; enhances; reciprocal
2. Grammar is spelled with a second “a”, not an “e”.
3. Bear and bare, also homophones, are often confused. Bare means uncovered, naked, or exposed, so misusing it can be embarrassing.
4. The AP Stylebook, the de facto style and use guide for most media, announced last March that they officially abbreviated electronic mail from e-mail to email. That followed their update the previous year of “Web site” to “website”.
5. Numbers 1-10 are spelled out in a sentence (e.g., two statistics); above ten, use numerals (e.g., 90 days until spring, which – by the way – is not capitalized). Some exceptions apply.
6. “It’s” is a contraction for “it is”, whereas “its” shows possession.
7. Use commas to separate more than two listed items. Use semicolons to separate lists of three or more compound items, such as phrases that include verbs.
8. While many people consider the last comma (or semicolon) optional before the “and” in lists of three or more, using that comma is safest to avoid any confusion.
9. When showing singular possession (e.g., author’s other skills) use ’s. When showing possession for many (e.g., recipients’ style) use s’.
10. Patients are people under medical care. Patience is something you have; the ability to avoid annoyance. Ironically, patience is the quality of being patient (adj.), not a patient (noun).
11. The Latin abbreviation e.g. stands for “for example”, whereas i.e. stands for “that is” or “in other words”. They are not interchangeable and using a comma after each is good practice.
12. The em dash, named as such because it is about the length of an m, may replace commas, semicolons, colons, and parentheses to indicate added emphasis, an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought in informal writing.
13. Sentences should only have one space between them. In today’s era of proportional fonts, kerning, and typesetting programs, publications have switched to single spaces after periods, as supported by style guides.
14. Bullets are used when sequence or amount doesn’t matter (e.g., the leader and PM statistics); otherwise numbers are used for listing (e.g., these 15 awesome rules).
15. Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style is a great reference, along with The AP Stylebook and the The Chicago Manual of Style, all available on Amazon.