"The principle finding of our investigation is that you're original surmises was correct and that the problem lays within your process and systems and not by your people.  They are disinterested but it is the processes that are mainly the problem here."

Enough!!!  "This is the type of English up with which I will not put" (as Sir Winston Churchill famously wrote in the margin of a memo that displeased him).

There is a fashion at the moment whereby some people belittle spelling and the correct use of English as 'elitist' and not relevant to the understanding of writing or the conveyance of meaning.  Your Alchemist begs to differ!  Suppose you are a senior manager and the paragraph above features in a report submitted to you.  What does it say to you about the writer?  Perhaps that the writer:

• is lazy and cannot be bothered to write correctly and accurately?

• is ignorant and just doesn't know what is correct?

• has no respect for you as the reader?

It is widely accepted that the key competencies of a business analyst include communication, influencing and selling - of ideas, concepts and solutions. None of these is likely to be helped if the recipients of your communications think you are lazy, ignorant or incompetent.  If you cannot sell yourself as a credible professional, you cannot sell your ideas to anyone.

Business Communication Requires Good Spelling and Grammar

There are, of course, plenty of areas where there is genuine dispute among scholars of literature as to what is correct.  The Alchemist, for instance, still doesn't like split infinitives (although many experts reckon they are OK) and an interesting debate has been raging in the media about the distinction between 'less' and 'fewer'.  But that is not what we are discussing here; we are writing about things which are, well, just plain wrong.

Let's go back to that opening paragraph and spot the howlers.  For a start, the word for 'main' is 'principal' not 'principle' (which means a 'fundamental truth'.)  Then, 'you're' should, of course, be 'your'.  'Surmises was' should, of course, be 'surmises were' and the mistake here probably results from the author changing from the plural to the singular mid-sentence and re-reading it afterwards.  'Disinterested' is actually a very useful word meaning 'not having an interest in' (in other words, being impartial) whereas what was meant here was actually 'uninterested' (not caring less).

There are other basic mistakes that always raise the Alchemist's hackles.  For instance, the incorrect use of 'their', 'there' and 'they're'; and writing 'must of' instead of 'must have'.

What's more, we cannot rely on the spool cheeker (see what I did there?) to find these problems. Sometimes, the spelling and grammar checkers will detect that we have used the wrong form of 'principal' but it is much better if (a) we take care and check for ourselves in the first place and (b) we double-check everything before committing it to print or sending it off through the internet.

Remember, it is our credibility as business professionals that is at stake here.

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