Recently I conducted my own personal poll consisting of a series of questions for professionals in the business world, leaders of student organization, and experienced educators. The purpose of the poll was to gain information for myself on something that has plagued the American-English language for years.
My first two survey questions were:
1. Does the general public know the difference between there, their and they’re? Or between your and you’re?
I assumed everyone knew the difference but simply chose not to take the time to differentiate the words.
I began wondering whether the choice of words might be important when apply for a job. I asked:
2. When considering someone for employment, does the employer look at literary skills?
If an application has the wrong form of there/their/they’re or your/you’re on it, does it affect the applicant negatively?
I received interesting responses to my survey;
All (100 percent) of the respondents knew the difference between the words, which I expected, but I wanted to get that basic question out of the way to make sure.
The next question probed further.
When considering someone for employment, do you observe their literacy skills?
About 91.4 percent responded that they take into account an applicant’s literacy skills. Only 8.6 percent said they did not.
The next questions went more in-depth in an attempt to learn the impact of an applicant’s use of the wrong form of these words on an application. About 51.4 percent of the respondents said “yes” it would affect the status of the application, while 42.9 percent said “probably.” Only 5.7 percent said “no,” the applicant’s incorrect usage would not affect the application.
My final request was that the respondents add additional comments on the topic. This is where the responses got interesting!
“The neglect of these literary rules can indicate a lack of ability or awareness, and a definite lack of attention to detail. Mistakes such as these would weigh heavily against a job applicant in my mind,” said Zach Morris, a board member of several student organizations.
“Putting one's best foot forward, even in regards to small details like this, is incredibly important. Before I was a professor, when I worked in the medical records industry, I might get 100 applications for a filing clerk position, and so mistakes in word usage are one potential way I might start weeding out applicants," said a University of Cincinnati Professor.
From these two respondents and more, it was clear that paying attention to detail of word usage is important on job applications. They believed that it revealed dedication and seriousness within the applicant. For the UC Professor, grammatical errors became a weeding tool.
“Communication skills, both written and spoken, are very important. An employment application with misspelled words or improper grammar tells me that the applicant may not pay attention to detail," said Dave Wilkins/Owner of Purfusion Technology Services, Inc.
Attention to detail seemed to be a common theme among a majority of responses. I was surprised at the significance it played. When I prepared the survey with my focus on word usage, I learned that it’s not as much about the words, as it is about the ability to give detail to the content of the entire application.
So if you gain anything from this article, it should be that paying attention to even the tiniest detail can matter significantly. Someone could choose to dismiss your application simply because you used the wrong “there” or misused “you’re.” The time it takes to thoroughly review your application, and to ask someone to review it for you, could put your application at the top of the professional’s stack instead of the bottom.
