

Ask HN: How Important is Spelling and Grammar? - sparknlaunch12

How Important is Spelling and Grammar?<p>I have recently spotted spelling and grammar mistakes on well established websites. One was an error message received when typing in the incorrect username. Another was within the product, describing how to use that part of functionality.<p>Should we be concerned? Does it matter?<p>From a customer perspective, it may just damper the user experience but not the end of the world.<p>From a coding perspective, does this hint of a more serious problem? What tools are available to reduce these mistakes hitting the front/back end?<p>Edit - Changed title grammar (irony).
======
ColinWright
I believe that the context matters, but yes, spelling and grammar are
important. Anything that causes your readers and potential customers to trip
over your words and have to re-read to try to understand what you meant is
bad.

Now re-read that last sentence, and compare with this one:

    
    
      It's bad when something causes your reader
      to stumble and have to re-read things.
    

Moving the "bad" bit to the front means your reader doesn't have to wait for
the punch-line in the sentence. Does it matter? Maybe. It reduces the
cognitive burden. It also results in fewer "Garden path" sentences.

Copy editing matters - it really does.

There are grammar, style and spelling checkers out there, but natural language
is complicated. In the past I've used the link grammar package with some
success, but it's very time intensive. TANSTAAFL.

~~~
sparknlaunch12
Sure context matters. Time and cost are a constraint. You pay a premium to
have good code/product however where do you draw the line?

If the Apple OS was full of spelling or grammar errors but looked great would
consumers not buy it?

~~~
ColinWright
Although it's not necessarily authoritative, and isn't necessarily backed by
hard research, let me quote from this page about landing pages:
[http://blog.kissmetrics.com/landing-page-design-
infographic/...](http://blog.kissmetrics.com/landing-page-design-
infographic/?wide=1)

Quote:

    
    
        3. Impeccable Grammar
    
        In the example of an online retailer who is
        asking for visitors to purchase and provide
        personal and billing information, the trust
        of the customer will be risked if there are
        spelling errors and sloppy grammar.

------
grammarbot
Are _

------
Mz
Yes and no.

I own a tent made in some place like China (i.e. Some place with cheaper labor
where English is not the native language) and sold at Walmart. The
instructions are full of grammatical and spelling mistakes. I keep buying the
same tent anyway because it is the best product for my needs, even though my
sons and I crack jokes about it. But I am talented at figuring out how things
go together and I have a long history of assembling things without bothering
to read the instructions. It is entirely possible these errors are costing
Walmart customers, possibly in the form of returns when they can't get it
assembled.

You could write them and _nicely_ point out the error(s). If they correct it
and thank you, it would concern me a lot less (because typos happen, no matter
how good you are). If you are ignored or mistreated, be more concerned, not
less.

~~~
sparknlaunch12
Would you buy a parachute with badly written instructions?

Does good grammar or spelling portray a level of quality?

~~~
Mz
I have never been parachuting. I have difficulty imagining that I would use a
parachute for the first time relying solely on written instructions as I did
with sleeping in a tent this year because I happen to be homeless. I imagine
if I ever went parachuting, my preference would be to get a parachute from a
company which required its workers to occassionally use one of their own
parachutes which they personally packed. But most products aren't going to
kill you if the instructions have a typo so I find your question a bit
ridiculous. Obviously for some products the standards need to be quite high.

One of the questions you are asking amounts to "Can I use spelling and grammar
quality as a proxy for general product quality?" Many people will but it
doesn't necessarily make a good proxy. There are extremely brilliant people
who have problems with things like spelling or handwriting. Yes, you should
try to get it right but you should also try to find a better, more relevant
means to do a quick and dirty inference to measure quality. Many consumers do
not themselves spell or write well enough to notice nitpicky errors of that
sort. And a lot of very intelligent people who will nitpick things like that
spend so much time and energy wrapped around the axle about their
perfectionistic tendencies that they can't get much of anything done. You need
to seek a realistic balance if you want both quality and accomplishment.

~~~
sparknlaunch12
Maybe a parachute is a bad example. The questions are:

1) Is good quality associated with good grammar? (ie are these variables
correlated?) 2) Does poor grammar signal other deficiencies? (ie where there
is smoke, is there fire?)

Yes, poorly written instructions are not vital. However a menu with spelling
errors in a high end restaurant may signal poor attention to detail/standards
elsewhere.

~~~
Mz
A high end resaurant which presumably charges a lot of money is going to
generally be held to a higher standard in all things across the board. I feel
I have made my view clear from the outset that a) yes, such things matter and
also b) spelling and grammar are not always the best proxy for infering
general quality. I do not know what else to say to satisfy you.

Best of luck.

