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A lesson I once learned from a mentor: attention to detail in the little things often demonstrates attention to detail in the big things. No one really cares
by edw519 16y ago
A lesson I once learned from a mentor: attention to detail in the little things often demonstrates attention to detail in the big things.
No one really cares if you misspell a word, use the wrong tense, or make some other grammatical error. But sometimes, that's all they've got to go on to assess your attention to detail. I've seen vendors proposing multi-million dollar purchases rejected because of carelessness in their writing. And the explanation was always the same, "If he's that careless with his writing, how careless will he be with my business?"
When the division manager who has made us $90 million misspells a word in an email, no one bats an eyelash; he must have been in a hurry. But when a cover letter has errors, it really makes people wonder.
- anamax 16y ago> A lesson I once learned from a mentor: attention to detail in the little things often demonstrates attention to detail in the big things. That's why Van Halen's concert contracts say "No brown MMs". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen#Contract_riders http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen#Contract_riders
- pchristensen 16y agoSee also http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/386/Fine-Print http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/386/F...
- roofone 16y agoAlso the equivalent of the Broken Window Theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows
- Gormo 16y agoAnd the more permanent and public the context, the more relevant that attention to detail is as an indicator. A few days ago, I was stopped at a red light behind a landscaping company's truck. They'd had one of those vehicle wraps applied to the body of the truck, turning the whole thing into a billboard for their company. The graphics and copy on the truck wrap contained several spelling errors, uncapitalized sentences, a bulleted list in which the bullets were not vertically aligned, and visible JPEG artifacts. Now imagine what your lawn might look like if you hired this company. In more white-collar contexts, poor grammar, spelling, or writing style might also work as a broader indicator of intelligence and education: I'd presume that being able to write effectively is fairly well correlated with being well-read.
- coderdude 16y agoThat's a terrible example to draw from. Your lawn might look great when they get done with it, because I doubt those gardeners were the people that designed their truck's advertising. They probably hired some guy to do it for $300.
- HeyLaughingBoy 16y agoThe example is quite valid. If I hire someone to make a sign, I will make sure it's done right before I pay them. Moreover, putting a crappy, poorly spelled ad on my vehicle reflects on me and my attention to detail since that's all the reader has to go on.
- coderdude 16y agoWell, you are right that if you hire someone to make a sign you should at least verify yourself that there are no spelling mistakes and that it won't reflect poorly on your company. I concede.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- autarch 16y agoI don't care if you misspell a word, or make an error. But errors require extra time to process on the reader's part. Writing that's filled with spelling and grammar errors wastes the reader's time. I don't like having my time wasted, and so I do care about spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Similarly, I assume other people care about their time, and I try my best to write well. Of course, the amount of care needed varies based on what you're writing. I spend more time proofreading my blog posts than this comment, and much more time proofreading the books I've worked on.
- theorique 16y agoIt's a matter of credibility and reputation. When someone who has a track record of delivering value to a given organization makes a little error, it's not a big deal, because it's balanced against "karma" that they have already banked. On the other hand, a cover letter and resume (aka "sales letter" for your services) is your first introduction to the organization. Same thing with a vendor proposal. Such a document probably arrives in a pile of several (perhaps even tens or hundreds) of others. In such a situation, and in the absence of personal connections to the decision makers, your credibility is pretty much zero. Your written word is your reputation. In such a case, people are looking for reasons to filter, and being perfectionistic about grammar is a reasonably inoffensive axis to use for a preliminary cut.
- lutorm 16y agoI feel the same way, and it's not just about spelling. When I've been reviewing research proposals, I always get an instant bad impression if it's clear that they haven't followed the proposal preparation instructions, ie not proper sections, shrunk the font to squeeze more text in despite explicitly being told not to, etc.