Is the apostrophe dead? : yes, no, or dont know ...

[grahamg4]

[eskimo13]

I'll admit to being strictly 'old-school', so my opinion is that just because usages become accepted as the norm, doesn't make them right or correct.

New terms and words will always be added and accepted into our ever-evolving language, but when it comes to punctuation, syntax, sentence structure and grammar, right is right and wrong is wrong, IMHO. See there? Just a few short years ago nobody would have known what that meant, but today it is part of the language. That doesn't mean that grammatical and punctuational representations should be cast aside as 'outdated' does it? I think not.

If we allow ourselves, or our children, to rely strictly on what "Spell Check" says is right or accepted, instead of getting a proper education, then we 'get what we pay for' don't we?

My two cents,
Quinn

[grahamg4]

I'm with you Quinn 100%

I think the culprit is text messaging. Is is easier to push less smaller buttons so words are shortened. Seems that in 25 years nobody will remember vowels.

vwls jst wnt b rqrd

Anyone else with a thought?
Al

[angienewton]

[KarenMcG]

Well I have to throw in my pennies on this, too.

And just echo what Quinn and the rest of you've said.

Don't and won't can't be any other way.

As has been mentioned, just because spell check lets them pass doesn't mean it's right. After all, spell check's only as good as what's been programmed into it.

Never saw a Spell check yet that could actually, you know, read! Or think.


Karen

[wade_watson]

Even though one person for whose intelligence I have great respect frequently neglects apostrophes, I am constantly pressing people to use the grammar they were taught in grade school. On the Internet our first impression of a person is usually the way they write. Childlike spelling and punctuation from adults is an instant put-off to me. I enjoy answering questions at Yahoo Answers, but if a questioner cannot communicate clearly in print, I usually pass over them. Most every computer has a spell-checker. Since we are actually depending on our online writing to pay the bills, it is only logical that we write in clear and conventional English. The text-message generation may alter the language of the future, but as marketers, I think it is unnecessary to risk the loss of a sale due to bad grammar. And good grammar costs nothing!

--Wade

[Bensettle]

Wade,

I hear ya on that, and what you say makes a lot of sense.

But I can't resist giving a counter point from Mark Twain:

"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way"

I won't say this is always the case for every market... but I have found (in email especially), misspellings can ratchet up sales and clickthrus -- sometimes by big margins.

Definitely worth testing to see.

Maybe it will work, maybe not.

But it's kinda fun playing around with words to see what happens.

Ben Settle

[grahamg4]

[terrapin719]

[Bensettle]

I do it all the time in my own emails and even in some of my sales letters.

Sometimes my clients have even tested it and have seen this for themselves. The old school direct marketers did it all the time with HUGE success. And the reason why is because misspellings and bad grammar make you look more authentic.

Not perfectly formatting your emails, so some lines are longer and out of whack make it look like you wrote a personal, 1 on 1 email.

Using ugly courier font can sometimes (depending on the market) increase your response and (in email especially) make it look like you just dashed off a personal email or letter to someone.

This was just the case with an email I wrote last week.

It was not even on purpose, but it accidentally went out with really screwy format, one entire paragraph was twice as long as the rest of the email, clickthrus were through the roof (especially for a Friday).

It stands out in the inbox.

This is not always the case. And I'm not saying to not use spellcheck. But sometimes purposely misspelling certain words will bring more "flavor" and personality to your communications.

And if it's done on accident, well, no big deal.

Sadly -- in America at least -- the majority of people read at less than an 6th grade level anyway. Most don't even know the difference between "their" and "there" or "its" and "it's".

I'm not even sure I do half the time

So I just don't worry about it.

Of course, if you are writing to a more sophisticated market who does care about such things (other writers, for example), then I would make sure every i is dotted and t crossed.

But for most markets (I've written for at least) not only do I not worry too much about my spelling, sales are often higher and clickthurs through the roof with an occasional misspelled word or out of place punctuation.

That's why I say it's worth testing.

Everything is worth testing, IMHO.

Even stuff I personally find annoying (especially stuff I find annoying I like to test.)

Ben

[terrapin719]

Oh, okay I get what you're saying now. Common typos do make emails look a bit more authentic I suppose.

I have seen a few marketers that are either overdoing the typos, or just don't care at all. I unsubscribed from a PLR service and newsletter recently of one such marketer.

So, I agree with you, it depends on the market you're sending those emails and content out to.