As a small business owner, everything that you do sends a message about your company. The letters you write, the emails you send, and even the text messages that you distribute all play a role in establishing your company’s image. Writing skills have always been essential in the business world, and their importance is greater today than ever. With so much communication taking place electronically, professionals at all levels and in all types of jobs must work on perfecting their writing skills.

Grammar
When you distribute a written message, problems with grammar are obvious and glaring. Regardless of how talented you are, if your business writing reflects poor grammar, people are going to draw negative conclusions about your intelligence and your skills. Many people can “get away” with using less than perfect grammar in spoken communication (although it’s not recommended to try), but written documentation is unforgiving. When you distribute information in writing that reflects poor grammar, there’s no “taking it back”.

Spelling
It’s just as important to spell words correctly as it is to write using proper grammar. There are two major issues that “trip up” professionals when it comes to spelling. They both involve spell check in word processing programs. First, it is a mistake to neglect to use spell check. No matter how good of a typist you are, you will make typographical errors from time to time. Let spell check catch some of your mistakes for you.

The second issue, however, has to do with relying on spell check to much. The spell check function in your word processor is not perfect. It doesn’t “understand” what you are trying to say, so it can’t tell if the words you have typed are the ones you actually meant to use. Spell check only marks groups of letters that don’t form actual words.

Proofreading
There is no substitute for proofreading what you have written. You must proofread carefully to make sure that what you have written actually makes sense. However, it is not sufficient to be the only person who proofreads your work. You know what you meant to say, so it’s easy to overlook your own errors.

It’s best to have at least one other person proofread your work, preferably someone who isn’t already an expert in what you are writing about. That way, the person who is proofing your work can verify that the language you have chosen to use actually conveys the correct message.