Nexus of Spelling to Income
In
Various Professions
Is there statistically valid connection between good spellers and earnings in any profession? In general, I would say YES. Why? Because it stands to reason that a person who takes the trouble of ensuring that the application that he or she makes in applying for a job is grammatically correct and without any spelling errors is not only diligent, intelligent, observant, expressive and serious, but also respectful to his or her potential employer. Having said that, one should also add, that good spellers are more likely to be shortlisted for a job interview than less competent spellers whose applications contains spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors.
The greater the spelling errors, the less likely that person to be shortlisted.
If he or she is shortlisted and hired, the position a bad speller is likely to fill would generally involve lesser responsibility than a significantly better speller in most cases. It therefore more probable that a good speller would earn a statistically significant greater income.
Whilst as a rule of thumb that observation is generally correct, spelling is not necessarily a crucial indicator of earning in a great number of industries where commonsense, foresight, intuition, agility, dexterity and fitness are either the required characteristics, or the preferable characteristic ahead of spelling.
Grammarly’s Statistical Survey
Before analyzing the statistical significance of the review conducted by Grammarly on 448 freelance professionals, one should take note and be aware that all ‘Word Programs’ on which a professional freelancer likely to complete his or her application do have number of features that allows a bad speller to present his or her articles devoid of spelling and grammatical errors. These include amongst other features a ‘Spelling Check’. Furthermore, the internet provides prolific number of ‘ideal samples’ format applications for practically all jobs, including the seven subject to Grammarly’ study namely:
Administrative Support, legal, Design & Multimedia, Engineering & Manufacturing, Sales & Marketing, Finance & Management, IT & Programming.
Whilst the total sample number, 448, is arguably statistically valid, that validity is somewhat questionable as it does not only give the specific sample number for each of the seven job categories - it only provides comparative earnings figures for four of the seven job categories subject to the survey. These four job categories are: Engineering & Manufacturing, Legal, Sales & Marketing, and Finance & Management. Whilst the study shows that applicants with the least spelling errors were the top earners in all four job categories, the relationship between ‘second best spellers’ is non linear in the Legal Profession, and Engineering & Manufacturing where employees whose spelling errors in the range of 21-30 per hundred words on average earn more than those whose spelling errors are in the range of 11-20 per hundred words. Needless to say that linearity of better spellers earning more than bad or less/ better spellers holds true in Finance & Management, and Sales and Marketing.
What is one to make of the relationship between the correlation of good spelling and earning in the professions of Design & Multimedia and IT & Programming? At first glance it would appear, given the tasks involved in good performance in these two professions and good spelling does not apply and/or is statistically meaningless.
Statistical Flaws & Pitfalls
Sampling, randomness, size of the population, age, sex, clarity of questions asked, are variables that influence the significance of any statistical study. Oral presentation, dress, confidence, eye contact, previous experience, enthusiasm, and willingness to learn and excel, and good references, are, in my opinion, significant factors that are of equal, if not of greater significance to good spelling as earning indicators. Also, lets not forget the support staff. Speaking as a former member of the Legal Profession, I can personally attest to having rarely typed out my own advice to clients. Using a dictaphone to record pleadings and correspondence, I entrusted my paralegal and secretary to such matters. In this scenario my support staffs' strength in grammar was a requisite, yet I was the higher earner. This can be said for many professionals with PA's and /or EA's who's job is to churn out professional reports, articles and correspondence.
Finally, whilst good spelling may have its virtues as indicator of earning in number of professions it should be remembered that the standard by which good spelling is often assessed is often by the Oxford and Webster English dictionaries. That said, British-English spelling often differs to American-English dictionaries. Accordingly, when one is writing an application that is likely to determine, or improve his or her chances of impressing the potential employer some research as to the background of the person or persons assessing that application may well be helpful.
Alternatively by simply downloading the Grammarly add-on to your writing program, many of the obstacles encountered with grammar, language, punctuation and spelling can be overcome.
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