The Gritty Virtual Assistant Blog

Just kidding! (How’s that for passive aggressive?)

So I get an email from a Virtual Assistant who informs me that she has been in the administrative field for 10 years (and your point is? I’ve got 15 more years than that on you, sweetie) and that our last ezine issue was “fraught with spelling and grammatical errors.”

Mind you, this helpful person didn’t bother to point out a single misspelling or grammatical error so it could be reviewed or corrected on our online version. This tends to make me think the person wants to gloat rather than be helpful.

Sorry, sister, but I never do anything “fraught” with spelling and grammatical errors. Typos maybe. Which is what happens when I have to throw an article together 10 minutes before publication because people are too intimidated by writing and putting themselves out there. So there’s just no time to send anything to my proofreader when that’s the case.

I actually think I should be praised to kingdom come on my ability to pull articles out of my ass at the very last second and singlehandedly keep our ezine going until we can draw more of our newer members out of their shells and have them start leveraging our article marketing opportunities.

But spelling and grammatical errors, no. I very often write colloquially on purpose, in the vein of “write how you speak.” Or I will bend rules to fit online readability. The difference between me and someone who is illiterate is that I know the rules and choose to bend them of my free and fully knowledgeable will. The uneducated ignoramus doesn’t know any better. So the grammar Nazis can have a picnic if that’s how they choose to spend their time. It really doesn’t concern me.

And spelling… I can outspell most people on my worst day… with a hangover… on two Excedrin PM.

Typos happen to everyone. It’s really nothing to get all pedantic about. You do your best and make corrections when you find them or they are brought to your attention.

Avoiding typos is important from the perspective that your words are your dress in print. It’s like seeing the most well-dressed man or woman with a stain on their shirt (or for the grammar Nazis, his or her shirt). It’s noticeable. But it’s hardly the end of the world–if every other evidence indicates that this is a person of knowledge, competence, intellect and creativity, no typos once in awhile are going to detract from that.

Now what does matter is when a person uses words incorrectly and consistently misspells words (not typos, but actually misspelling). That is indicative of a lack of literacy and poor command. So if I ever use a word incorrectly, that’s when you can send me your self-congratulatory, unconstructive messages. Mmmkay? Otherwise, how about being helpful instead and kindly letting me or my staff know when you spot typos so we can get them fixed up?