Websites - does spelling & grammar matter?

I offer this almost classic example from a website that clearly doesnt give a flying fuck for it. I’ve only highlighted the obvious errors and not the gibberish which makes up most of the paragraph.

"We work extremely hard to source the best possible ingredents form our independent Butchers, seafood suppliers and owner Joe goes to market himself for the vegtables somthing he shared a while ago with his late father Keith, Produce that has been selected with care and love and prepared we respect is what we believe is essential for the memorable experiance we want for our customers . Alongside the a’ La Carte menu witch is served from Tuesday to Sunday we served a lunch menu Tuesday to Friday Apart from sundays where we serve our Famous British roasts with beef fat roast potatoes, homemade yorkshire pudding and red wine gravey

It’s actually a pub I’ve had lunch at a couple of times but not for some years. If they take so little care over their public image, I may just pass on visiting when I’m in their area next week

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My son’s wife is a lifestyle blogger with a large following. I rather frequently find what are mostly typos in her blog posts… as I do in lots of similar material I come across. I’ve just concluded that the huge amount of material generated in today’s tech lifestyle combines with the speed at which people consume it to make relatively minor spelling errors more ‘acceptable’. Of course I learned to write my name in full cursive script and still do it that way all the time too, so quick scribble signatures are foreign to me. I’m from a different time too and I feel your pain on this.

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All the care, love, and respect went into the vegtables … Which I suppose is what counts in a restaurant but I agree, that paragraph is an embarrassment.

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I think you’re right, if you correct people you get jumped on for being too picky and come on, you know what they mean.

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I really do despair at examples like this which go way beyond the typos that we all make. I frequent a particular Tripadvisor forum for a resort very popular with my fellow Britons. I am regularly appalled at how poor the standard of English is - it is shameful that my government lets so many people leave school barely literate and it’s shameful that no-one seems to think this is important. On that forum, I find it genuinely upsetting when there are posters for whom English is not their first language writing better than native speakers. But, as Babette notes, you get jumped on if you mention it.

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It all matters. Precision and predictable meaning are marks of effective communication. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage distinguish literacy from babble in the real world where there is accountability for uniform interpretation:

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I was raised in a household that placed a premium on grammar. This paragraph makes my blood pressure boil.

(Full disclosure: I also majored in English in college.)

As a grad student who majored in English I charged ridiculously low rates to proofread/edit copy for local businesses, theses for other students, etc. I later returned to school for an advanced degree in information technology and earned a good amount proofreading/editing theses and dissertations. My point? If this business exists in a town that also has a university, it could have its site corrected very economically.

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Poor grammar is pure laziness. Anyone can proofread copy before pushing the send button. Not many do. Most egregious fail, to my thinking is the American newspaper industry. It used to be the standard bearer for correct punctuation and Grammar; then along came the Internet, and precision got booted to the sidelines.

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Spot on! I am generally good at spelling, grammar, and punctuation. This is largely because, when I was learning to read, if something was in print, it was correct, whether it was a book, label, or advertisement. Now, the produce section of the Market Basket flyer consistently flogs “zuchinni” and “mesculin”. We need to go back to the earlier name for elementary schools: grammar schools!

Here is an abomination from a Facebook yarn group to which I belong:

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“their area next week” - don’t you mean “there”?:wink::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I’m not sure to what extent human proofreading on sites exists,
and how much is computerized. My friend’s a book and publication editor. I’ll ask her.

Three of my four books were proofread by the editor. And, with Mrs H and I having proofread it three times ourselves, I was somewhat surprised how many errors he found (mainly grammar).

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I suppose that, to be totally correct, it should be “its” rather than “their”. Mea culpa :wink:

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I think someone from the pub wrote the paragraph on a phone.

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I have been told owners never read their own sites unless there is a legal reason to.

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I gotta ask, why publish it if it’s garble garbage?

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I know what you mean. No matter how carefully I write a post, sometimes I’ll go back and read it a few days later and be surprised by how many mistakes I made. This is why my school teachers would say we had to write a final draft at least a day before an essay was due. I’ve noticed it does come more naturally for some folks. The English majors working at my university’s writing center were like superheroes as far as I was concerned.

Not to be all nitpicky, but isn’t the title of this thread incorrect?
:wink:

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Good catch! That should read DO, not DOES.

If it’s a business or something professional then the writing should be proper. It’s irritating to read improper written texts on such sites, or printed matter. On web forums and such it doesn’t really matter.

When I was at school (heath care sector) I was amazed to see how much bad grammar and spelling in books. Can’t remember the times I pointed them out to teachers. They just said they knew but nobody cared to fix it.

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