The Art of Letter/Article Writing - Spelling and Grammar

Have you ever received a marketing letter promoting some really good retail goods and been put off by the number of spelling mistakes or grammatical errors? I have received such letters from highly thought of professional companies which have made me wince. How these ever passed the proof reading stage I don't know. Is good grammar and spelling a lost art? and can it actually lose you business? I get so irritated by these errors that I can't be bothered to read what the letter is really about.

Back in my school days spelling and grammar were of prime importance when writing essays on any subject. Weekly spelling tests were the norm. We left school knowing at least how to spell common usage words and how to put a sentence together grammatically. Today I'm not so sure.

Going back many years when I first worked in a Bank part of my job was to write letters to solicitors, accountants and customers. It was very important to not only get the information correct, but also the spelling and grammar. We had secretaries then who would type the letter and correct anything as they did so. The letter would be returned to me to be checked and then a manager would sign it. The manager would also ensure that spelling, grammar and information was correct. Yes, it was a bit long winded and expensive even if the end result was very good.

Over the years staff in most companies was reduced until now, letters are written straight onto the computer and are rarely checked. No wonder we get mistakes occurring. Most people use computers or word processors and these have a built in spell checker. This makes life so easy and we all get lazy about our spelling because the computer will do this for us. However, the English language is full of words which sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings. We have there and their, hear and here, bough and bow to mention just a few. We also have UK and US spelling.

Therefore, we cannot just trust the spellchecker completely. We need to proof read our letter or article to ensure that the correct words are used, given the meaning of the sentence. A little time taken to proof read a letter, or get a colleague to do it, may earn you more sales, less complaints and a reputation for being very professional.

Time Management

Where to start! There has been so much written on this subject and for many years now time management has been one of the key areas for employee training. It started with training top managers, executive officers and working directors. It was then considered useful for middle managers and sales staff. Now, the majority of office staff and anyone who needs to schedule work for themselves - i.e. employees who don't have a set daily time frame for completing tasks, but even then to encourage employees to seek promotion or other areas in the company this is useful training.

There are many tools to help you manage your time. The obvious one is a good paper diary system and is still needed even in this computer age. One of my favourites is the Franklin Covey system - see the link in the sidebar and visit their website. Franklin Covey offer not just a diary system, but self help books and also training courses.

Another system is the Outlook calender and other computerised diaries. These have built in reminder systems together with the ability to schedule meetings and appointments. Technology has really developed this area so check out new updates on the web. On my website -http://www.margaretgammons.co.uk/ -there is a link to a book from the Society Of Virtual Assistants on Time Management which has lots of useful information.

It is now mostly a matter of personal choice - whichever system suits you. Sometimes there can be a corporate system and this obviously must be used. If, however, you are in a position of influence in these companies it is worth keeping yourself up to speed on any new systems. This could be time saving in the long term.

Saving time - considered delegating?

Over the years in business I have found the most difficult thing is to delegate work. I suppose I start from the premise that no-one else can do the work as well as I can! Many of us are very proud of how well we do all our tasks and cannot imagine anyone else comes up to our perfectionist standards.

It was a bitter blow to learn that others can do certain tasks as well as I can. We all have our own particular skills and we excel at certain tasks. This doesn't mean, however, that someone else cannot do these tasks just as well. With me it was the fear that another person would mess up my work that stopped me, but why should they?

Take letter writing. When I write a business letter I have my own style. So does the next person. Compare both letters and provided they are giving the same information, in an understandable way, each letter is fine.

So why not delegate. Anyone running their own small business can easily get overwhelmed with the amount of individual things they need to do each day or week. Sometimes, though, the amount of work that could be delegated does not warrant actually employing someone permanently. There is now an alternative - employ a Virtual Assistant. Have a look at my previous articles on Virtual Assistants for guidance. Or go to my website http://www.margaretgammons.co.uk/ for more information. On the Business Resources page of my website you will also find a book you can purchase for much fuller information.