Readers can’t help judging you by your writing (3)

Readers can’t help judging you by your writing: your diction and grammar. Especially readers who are seeing your work for the first time.

On September 23, I discussed how new readers sometimes judge you even by the first few lines they read. The example I used then was the brief introduction to an online glossary. That’s not as formal a context as, say, an annual report, but it is still fairly formal. Therefore, new readers expect fairly high quality. And they tend to judge you earlier, even in the first line or two.

Less-formal copy

In less-formal copy, such as a comment on a blog or web site, readers expect less quality. They will tolerate more errors. And they will read more copy (maybe a paragraph or two) before judging you.

But every reader has a limit. It varies from reader to reader; if your copy contains a lot of errors, you risk losing a lot of readers.

I saw a good example of that on Yahoo! News. It was a comment on a story titled, “Army colonel in Afghanistan fired for criticizing PowerPoint.” The comment was only 105 words long, but it contained more than 30 errors.

Example

This is the whole 105-word comment:

Have we forgotten charity begins @ Home. We need to secure our own borders and honor our fonding core. The Consitution, Bill of Rights and our Flag(old glory) We are AMERICANS, a very unique and wonderful peoples! Let's HONOR our own! Do NOT let this GREAT country be pulled apart, by allowing others to condiming our Laws, spit on our flag, our military to wear badges of others,ie; NATO. Those we have elected must be representive of the people or be FIRED! Our monies are being squandered( Iraq) we need to take care of our own. Build from with in ,DON'T sell your FREEDOMS!! E PLURIBUS UNUM!!!

Analysis

We all make errors.

But I think you’ll agree that the sheer weight of 30-plus errors detracts so much from the author’s credibility that he fails to deliver a clear message. In fact, the author sounds like one of those people who stand on street corners and harangue invisible audiences.

Here’s my analysis, sentence by sentence. The author’s words are in green. My inserts, corrections and comments are in black and in brackets. I have ignored errors of spacing.

Have we forgotten charity begins @ [In prose, it is sloppy to use @ in place of at.] Home. [The capital H is gratuitous and therefore distracting. The sentence should end with a question mark, not a period.]

We need to secure our own borders and honor our fonding core [What does “fonding core” mean?].

The Consitution [Misspelled.], Bill of Rights and our Flag [The capital F is gratuitous.] (old glory) [Old Glory is a popular and affectionate nickname for the flag of the United States; a nickname should be initial-capped.] [The author has omitted the period at the end of the sentence.]

We are AMERICANS [Gratuitous caps.], a very unique [There are no degrees of uniqueness; something either is or is not unique.] and wonderful peoples [people]!

Let's HONOR [Gratuitous caps.] our own!

Do NOT [Gratuitous caps.] let this GREAT [Gratuitous caps.] country be pulled apart, by allowing others to [The author appears to intend this to as the to in an infinitive; but what follows is a gerund or present participle.] condiming [There is no such word.] our Laws [Gratuitous cap.], spit on our flag, [A verb is needed here.] our military to wear badges of others, ie; [This abbreviation should be spelled with periods (i.e.). The semicolon should precede and the comma should follow. The author’s use of others suggests that he means e.g.] NATO.

Those we have elected must be representive [Misspelled.] of the people or be FIRED! [Gratuitous caps.]

Our monies are [Our money is] being squandered ([; e.g., in] Iraq) [Should a new sentence begin here?] we need to take care of our own.

Build from within, DON'T [Gratuitous caps.] sell your FREEDOMS [Gratuitous caps.]!! [Multiple exclamation points usually indicate immaturity, flightiness or mania – and therefore detract from an author’s credibility.]

E PLURIBUS UNUM [Gratuitous caps.]!!! [Multiple exclamation points.]

The Takeaway: Your readers can’t help judging you by your writing. This is especially true of readers who have never seen your work before. Readers tend to judge formal copy by the first line or two and less-formal copy by the first paragraph or two. Be on your best writing behavior early in your copy.

See disclaimer.