We can’t help but notice how many people have succumbed to the Facebook temptation to take the There/Their/They’re Test (yes we know that social networking is ’so yesterday’, but admit it, it’s addictive).

As you can imagine, this ‘testing’ application presents the optimum chance to show your friends that you did listen at school and do still know the basics of the English language. But it highlights something else to us (as purveyors of fine copy and choice words), and that’s the ever-present respect for good grammar and the correct use of punctuation.

Now far be it from us to lecture you (and I bet you’re scanning this text for errors - spot the deliberate mistake and you might just get a mention in our next enews), but how many times have you driven past a sign for ‘carrot’s 10p’ or suchlike and not tutted?

We think it goes far deeper than disapproval, as mistakes in copy immediately undermine that business or product. After all, if they can’t spell their own special offers correctly or don’t have respect for high-quality, and don’t value taking time, care and attention over their communications (think over-wordy website copy or shoddily-written press releases), what does it say about their products?

Too many times copy is neglected and design is king, but to produce effective communications requires the two to work hand-in-hand, complementing each other by being finished to the same standard of excellence. So don’t let them spot the mistake - whatever you are trying to convey to your customers needs to be self-assured and above all as good to read as it is to look at. So investing in a good copywriter, who knows their ‘who’s’ from their ‘whose’ makes complete sense to us.