Recent Research Reveals Top-Ten Business-Writing Errors

Recent Research Reveals Top-Ten Business-Writing Errors


WhiteSmoke Software Offers Solution to Costly Business Problem

Newark, DE, April 16, 2007 - Nearly every business in the global marketplace relies on written English. So who can afford to make mistakes? So, you might want to bone up on WhiteSmoke’s just-released list of top-ten grammar errors.
WhiteSmoke’s sophisticated technology provides large amounts of data on grammar errors made by its business users and other writers. Its software corrects a million sentences a month. With online delivery, it is uniquely able to analyze the types of errors that users make, and at what frequencies.
Five of the top ten are spelling errors, accounting for over half of the top-ten errors (53.2%). The remaining non-spelling categories are: prepositions (16.2%), double negatives (15.3%), slang / non-standard usage (9%), word choice (3.6%) and verb form (2.7%).
Businesses need to avoid costly grammatical errors. WhiteSmoke software is well positioned to help companies do just this, making it popular among business users.
Using a natural language approach and artificial intelligence algorithms, WhiteSmoke developed its software over four years. At the heart of the unique software is a database derived from carefully chosen real-world writing.
The result provides contextual spelling (unlike others, its spell checker often catches correctly spelled words in the wrong context, such as weather for whether) and unparalleled English grammar checking. WhiteSmoke is the most powerful writing software on the market, working better than products bundled with word processors, and, unlike those, working with any other software.
Using its large fount of data from online users, the company developed its top-ten list of error types.
General spelling errors, including typos, are the number one error type. Specific spelling error categories make up four other of the top ten: aural errors (e.g., “could of” instead of “could’ve”) at fourth, compound words at sixth, and contractions and their / there confusion tied at seventh.
Misspelling words gives the appearance that the writer doesn’t care, at best. At worst, it costs money for re-writing contracts or even for misunderstandings arising from errors.
Preposition errors, as the second most common error type, certainly could cause costly confusion. Are the figures over or under their intended target?
An employee using double negatives (ranked fourth) likely won’t be promoted, but if a double negative goes public, the company wouldn’t go nowhere.
Slang and non-standard usage, fifth, could hurt employees who want to get ahead or a company’s image, as well. Examples include using “cuz” for “because” or “gonna” for “going to.”
More information online:
http://www.whitesmoke.com/landing_flash/grammar.html?d=1&a=24&r=1285

For more information, contact:
David Brown / 972-50-3289279 / david@whitesmoke.com

Contact Information

David Brown

SEO Manager

WhiteSmoke INC

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