I was watching the Ellen DeGeneres Show this morning….that’s one of the privileges of being a freelance writer…one of the cons of course is “no regular paycheck.”  

Anyway, Ellen said that she has over 4 million followers now on Twitter, but that she thinks we should all put down our cell phones every once in a while and actually focus on what’s important…”her show”. 

Ellen was joking of course, but she does have a point. In this world of electronic communication and the quick message, we are losing something….the ability to communicate with one another in a polite, well-spoken, grammatically correct way. And forget about good spelling. That appears to be lost forever.

When we were children and someone gave us a gift or did something nice for us, our mothers sat us down, gave us a note card and insisted that we write a prompt, polite thank you note. Somehow “thnks 2 u” in a text message or in a Tweet is not quite the same thing.  While I still favor the “thank you note” in an envelope sent through the mail, I can grudgingly acknowledge that an acknowledgement sent by e-mail is better than no thank you at all. Just please, take some time in composing it. 

The number of e-mails I receive every day with misspelled words is too numerous to count.  Don’t be so quick to hit that send button, either for personal or business e-mail. Just as your traditional letter or note represents you, so too does your e-mail. If it is sloppily written with numerous errors, you are certainly not sending the right impression. Technology has made it so easy, just run the spell-check for goodness sake. You might be sending your e-mail or text to someone who actually knows how to spell.   

Social Grace