3 ms·

Would you buy a parachute with badly written instructions? Does good grammar or spelling portray a level of quality?

Mz 14y ago
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 14y ago
  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 14y ago
    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.

Mz 14y ago

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 14y ago
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 14y ago
  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.