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Grammatical errors go unchecked, new poll finds

Half of workers do not check their writing for mistakes before sending a document to their boss, a new survey has found.

Out of a survey of 1,000 adults conducted by WhiteSmoke, only 50 per cent of people said that they read through documents sent to a manager at work, although nearly half of the respondents admitted that good quality writing is important.

However, the firm checked 5,000 documents and discovered that 85 per cent contained at least one grammatical error.

Amit Green from WhiteSmoke said that the survey found that more care was taken by those who were writing a document that could be useful for their career, such as a CV.

"The poor quality of writing today is a worrying phenomenon. However, it is encouraging to know that despite getting basic sentences wrong, the majority of survey participants regard quality writing as important to them," he said.

Recently, graduates entering the financial services sector were found to have poor grammatical and numeracy skills by 61 per cent of bosses questioned by the Chartered Insurance Institute.