Electioneering billboards don’t usually stir me much but one from the recent campaigns had a powerful effect.

It caught my attention not so much for its message, but for the grammar: More Teachers, More Doctors, Less Bureaucrats. While it may sound picky, the incorrect usage of ‘less’ when it should be ‘fewer’ by a political party campaigning to lead the country really made me cringe.  I would have hoped that the marketing gurus behind our prospective leaders know their basic grammar.

But when you start observing it, bad grammar is a fairly common feature on websites, radio, in advertising, marketing . . . even business letters and newspapers. And, it’s the most basic points of grammar that are the most common; in particular placement of commas, the use of apostrophes in the plural form and the difference between nouns and verbs. True, your Microsoft spell check will automatically switch ‘practise’ to ‘practice’ when you mean the verb form. But in New Zealand we delineate the difference.

Does a bit of grammatical sloppiness really matter? Yes, it is important. Without correct grammar, that is language which is at least standardised and agreed upon by speakers of the language, meanings can become blurred and confused.

Proper language use also affects people’s perceptions. Would you shop at a supermarket that has a sign proudly proclaiming “we recycle our plastic bag’s”? I’ve seen such a sign. I’m also inclined to doubt the validity of a website which has a glaring punctuation or grammatical error.  True, a grammatical error in ad copy or a business letter confusing ‘affect’ with ‘effect’ is unlikely to sink the business, but it will have an impact on its reputation. So, proper language use does have its advantages in the business world.

Paying attention to good grammar in the internet age is also useful in detecting spam. When the grammatical structure of sentences are not quite right, the spelling is sloppy, or the commas are misplaced, it’s a good indication of something fishy. But, if you don’t have an understanding of basic English skills, you may be at risk.

I’m not a total grammar stalwart. There are times when breaking a few grammatical rules can have its benefits, such as in your personal blog to make you appear more human - as long as you understand the rules you are breaking. Creative writing too has space for grammatical adventuring; Lewis Carroll was a master at it.

However, proper grammar does mean clarity of expression. Anything else ultimately undermines the purpose of language as a medium of communication between humans.