Some Friday writing about writing: Does punctuation matter? Is writing without typos outdated?

Even though they were written in earnest, you may find the below column (at least half of it) and blog post amusing. Or unbelievable. Or wrong-headed. Or accurate. Or . . .

In "Punctuation: does it matter?" (The Independent), two writers respond to that question. One says "yes" and the other disagrees.

Penelope Trunk blogs today that Writing without typos is totally outdated. She gives five reasons for the demise of typo-free writing. (Warning: At a recent dinner gathering, two people in attendance in addition to me were acquainted with Trunk's blog; they both thought she was a satirist until they realized she was instead serious.) Her five reasons for typo acceptance:

1. Spellchecker isn’t perfect.
2. Spelling has nothing to do with intelligence.
3. You don’t have unlimited time, so spend it on ideas, not hyphens.
4. Perfectionism is a disease.
5. Use the comments section for what matters: Intelligent discourse.

What do you think?

Note (added April 4, 2008, 10:17 AM Mountain): Sharon Lippincott blogged her opinion in To Spell, or Not to Spell, That is the Question.

Note (added April 20, 2008, 7:45 PM Mountain): Avoid Ten Typos (Almost) Everybody Makes

Comments

[Diane Levin]

Like your dining companions, Stephanie, I, too, thought that Trunk was a satirist who made her living mocking self-help career guides. That's pretty sad if she's dispensing that kind of advice for real.

I do think she's mistaken on this issue. If you publish a business blog or are commenting on other blogs to build your online presence for business-related purposes, typos are not your friend. Does she seriously think that prospective clients or customers won't care or will be so dazzled by your brilliant ideas that they'll overlook the sloppy spelling or the missing punctuation? You can have the greatest ideas in the world, but if you can't bother to write grammatically, punctuate properly, and check for spelling errors, that speaks volumes about your care and attention to detail. It's like showing up for a job interview wearing a jacket covered with food stains and trousers with a split up the seat. In plenty of matters, accuracy matters -- and let's not forget that there have been lawsuits filed over misplaced commas. (You can probably tell by now that I'm a big fan of "Eats, Shoots & Leaves".)