Do Writing Errors Bother Professionals? An Analysis of the Most Bothersome Errors and How the Writer’s Ethos is Affected

Abstract

This study asks whether grammatical and mechanical errors bother business professionals, which of these types of errors are most bothersome, and whether such errors affect perceptions of the writer and their ethos. We administered a 17-question survey to roughly 100 business professionals whose roles are not primarily writing and communication within organizations. The findings show that business professionals are bothered by these errors and that the level of bothersomeness has increased from previous studies. Additionally, the findings show that participants have clear views of writers who make errors and that the context of the error matters. The authors conclude by offering implications for technical and professional communication.

Feature on Teaching: Bringing an Entrepreneurial Lens to the Business Communication Course

“…The next section of the survey asked these employers to consider a variety of communication-related skills and genres and to indicate if these were important or unimportant to their workplaces. When listing response options for the writing-related question, the author elected not to include foundational skills, such as grammar, as prior research has already convincingly demonstrated that employers do attend to grammatical errors (Brandenburg, 2015; Gubala et al, 2020). Instead, the intent was to uncover a deeper understanding of the more advanced and business-specific writing techniques and genres that employers sought.…”

When Your Boss Says, “You Need to Sound More Professional”: Writing Style and Writer Attributions

“…Unprofessionalism and grammar. Because grammatical errors have been found to bother business professionals (see Gubala et al, 2020), we would expect that writers who use nonstandard grammar would be more likely to be perceived as unprofessional than as professional. However, our findings did not support our intuition.…”

The Workplace Writing Experiences of EAL Professionals

“…There are several reasons for these concerns. Writing errors have the potential to harm an organization's image (Beason, 2001;Gubala et al, 2020;Hu & Hoare, 2017) and lead to business-to-business and business-to-consumer misunderstandings, sometimes causing costly delays or jeopardizing profits (Du, 2020;Knoch et al, 2016). Writing errors may have legal implications (Davies & Birbili, 2000;Knoch et al, 2016) or cause accidents or injury (Duff et al, 2000;Hu & Gonzales, 2020;Parks, 2000;Parks & Maguire, 1999), particularly in professions where a misplaced decimal or word, or the wrong units of measurement, can result in serious misunderstandings.…”