“Your grammar is a reflection of your image. Good or bad, you have made an impression. And like all impressions, you are in total control.” ~Jeffrey Gitomer

Speech, particularly written speech, has become a sloppy endeavor.

It pains me to read certain blog posts or e-mails, so riddled are they with what I consider 5^th grade errors. (I submit Donald Trump as exhibit A.)

We are assaulted daily with abbreviated words squeezed into 140-character count constraints. Incomplete thoughts. Communication snippets.

Dropped apostrophes, commas and capitals. Improper use of words (‘their’ versus ‘they’re’ versus ‘there’), with nouns claiming verb status and adjectives crowned king in a land of fools.

In the age of social media, the quantity of followers supersedes the quality of messages consumed. (I submit Kim Kardashian as exhibit B.)

It is as though good grammar has gone the way of the Dodo bird.

But grammar is important. It displays education, and care and thoughtfulness. It is a meta-message of authority and trustworthiness and intelligence.

People listen to the way you speak: too many ‘like’s’ or ‘you knows’ and you are pegged as lightweight.

And they pay attention to what you write as well: too many spelling errors, repetition of the same words (‘very’) or lack of punctuation and I have news for you: the first time you type ‘your’ when you meant ‘you’re’ it’s noticed and overlooked. The second time? Dismissed.

Because it’s deemed just plain lazy.

I don’t care how busy you think you are, if you want to lead, if you want to move ahead in life and relationships and your career, how and when and why you speak, and how and to whom matters. A lot.

If you want to move up in any organization, remember that the difference between you and your competition is measured in fractions.

Consider good grammar and thoughtful sentence structure as an important piece of the success equation.