I dislike poorly written and spoken English (not that I always get it wrote but I do try!) and believe that it is detrimental to both you and your company. Here’s some staggering information to support that view.

In an article* for Harvard Business Review, Brad Hoover reported that:

“his company, Grammarly, reviewed 100 LinkedIn profiles of native English-speakers in the consumer packaged goods industry. Each professional had worked for no more than three employers over the first 10 years of his or her career. Half were promoted to director level or above within those 10 years, and the other half were not.

Here’s what we found:

Professionals with fewer grammar errors in their profiles achieved higher positions.

Those who failed to progress to a director-level position within the first 10 years of their careers made 2.5 times as many grammar mistakes as their director-level colleagues.

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Fewer grammar errors correlate with more promotions.

Professionals with one to four promotions over their 10-year careers made 45% more grammar errors than those with six to nine promotions in the same time frame.

Fewer grammar errors associate with frequent job changes.

Those who remained at the same company for more than 10 years made 20% more grammar mistakes than those who held six jobs in the same period. This could be explained in a couple of ways: People with better grammar may be more ambitious in their search for promising career opportunities, or job-hoppers may simply recheck their résumés between jobs.

Granted, this is a relatively small sample size. We do not know whether the relationship is causal or if good grammar merely correlates with career success. It is also possible that professionals who were promoted to director level started their careers with poor grammar skills. If so, they significantly improved their skills over the past 10 years, and it is unlikely that all their progress occurred after they became directors. Perhaps follow-up studies can fill these holes in the analysis.

What we can say is that this data set clearly supports the hypothesis that good grammar is a predictor of professional success. The results are not surprising. As Wiens would argue, grammar skills may indicate several valuable traits, such as:

• Attention to detail: People who care about their writing demonstrate credibility, professionalism, and accuracy in their work.
• Critical thinking: Knowing how to structure a grammatically correct sentence is a sign that you can analyse and explain complex problems.
• Intellectual aptitude: If you are a native English-speaker and never learned the difference between “it’s” and “its,” especially given access to Google, an employer might wonder: What else have you failed to learn that might be useful?

Interestingly, there were virtually no spelling mistakes in the 100 LinkedIn profiles we analysed. This is probably because of the prevalence of spell check, which performs a relatively simple computer recall task. By contrast, grammar analysis is very complex, requiring a deep understanding of the relationships between words. For this reason, grammar provides a better window into a job applicant’s abilities.

Companies looking to hire top talent should consider grammar as one predictor of a candidate’s aptitude and success. Good grammar is simply good business.”

*Good Grammar Should Be Everyone’s Business, HBR March 04, 2013 by Brad Hoover who is the CEO of Grammarly, a software suite improving communication among the world’s two billion English writers.