Yes, people do judge you by your grammar

Hi Wayne,  I taught grammar in middle school.  It does stick out like a neon sign when reading an AR post filled with careless errors.

Love this.... one of my pet peeves is when people use "advise" when they mean "advice".

We all do make mistakes - and here on a blog they aren't quite a serious as when they appear in a brochure or on a sign.

I once went along with a friend to buy boxes for her business. A huge sign outside said "Get all you're boxes here!" Oooohh!

Misused words always stick out like sore thumbs too. I see rein and reign mixed up quite often, and right and write, but a funny one I caught this week read:

"Replace the headshot photo with one that shows you laughing, or wearing a crazy hat, or with your hair died."

That was a new one for me.

Seriously, I think a lot of these mistakes come from using voice recognition software and not going back to check what it wrote. My husband likes to "read TV" because he's hard of hearing. Some of the things that go across the screen turn a news show into a comedy.

Newsflash for people who rely on spellcheck: It will not catch misappropriated terms and words. You actually have to know the difference between their and they're, its and it's, etc.

Oh goodness, don't get me started. We're & were is one mistake I see fairly often. And I sometimes see people mix up sale and sell. "I'm going to sale my house" for instance, and "Is that house for sell?"

Wayne & Jean:  Often just using Spell Check is not enough.  If you write in the wrong word, and that word is spelled correctly, obviously... Spell Check won't catch it.  That is why after every comment I write, and then submit... I re-read it slowly before I go on to the next post. 

I want to make sure I have not missed a word, double-typed a word, or put in the wrong word.  Then, I correct it, hit submit again, and re-read it again.

Sometimes doing it right takes time... but it's worth it.

Marte:  Maybe those folks whose hair "died" were Grateful Dead fans.  You know... Dead Heads.  LOL.

And if those same folks "died" their hair... would that make them "died Dead Heads?"  Oy.

You are exactly write, I mean rite, I mean right.  Fantastic post!

I see misspelled words and bad grammar on posts, and sometimes if I haved time will send an email to the writer.  I know that when I go back and read some of my older post....I sometimes find an error and will fix it and wonder how I missed it ... oh well we are just human aren't we :)

I catch myself doing these things.  What worries me is when I don't catch myself.

Agreed.  I hate the auto spell feature on my iPad... yes, that is the reason for most of my wrong syntax.

Thank you for this post.  I can't count how many errors I see on a daily basis.  Reading this post I now realize I'm more of a stickler than I thought, but at least I'm not alone!

Proper grammar is very important, and it definitely relects on a person's professionalism.

I ain't got no problem with my grammer. I lerned it in skool.

I haven't read through all the comments, but as much as I try not to judge, I do.  Sometimes they are honest mistakes, but sometimes it is obvious.  Of course I have typos all over the place, but when I find them it drives me crazy and I'm embarrased that people have read it.  Always tell me if I have a grammar, spelling or typo mistake!  I probably have one in this comment since it's about 12:15am :-) Kasey

Great advice, but that handy dandy spell checker won't catch everything.  The most common goof that I make is form/from.  Always have to double check myself when I write that word.

dang rite...

My mother always thought that the English language was difficult because there were too many ways of spelling the same word...

many other languages are pronounced just like they are written...and written just like they sound.

Eve in Orlando