Originally Posted By: Scott Patterson This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Spelling and correct grammar are important. I see dozens of reports every year that are involved in litigation that are poorly written; it is difficult to defend a home inspector when his or her reports look like they are the work of a sixth grader. For some reason home inspectors think that they need to increase the verbiage in their reports as if they are being paid by the word. I don?t know if this is to impress the client or just to impress themselves. Remember that it is better to use fewer words in your sentences when reporting your findings. More inspectors are hung in court over what they say and how they say it and not what they didn?t say.
If we (you, me and every other home inspector) proofed their reports three times and then had another person proof the report before they published it for all to see many of the issues of poor spelling and bad grammar would be a moot point.
I?m a terrible speller and my command of English grammar is not much better, but all of my reports are proofed before the final product is released. If you don?t have the ability of having your reports proofed by another person, try reading the report section by section from the beginning of the report then read it from the end of the report to the beginning. Sometimes when you read in reverse you will catch mistakes that you would never have seen, simply because you are looking at it from a different prospective.
Originally Posted By: jmyers This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Scott,
I could not agree more, although those spell checkers don't pick up on the wrong words that are spelled correctly, like no and know. 
Originally Posted By: rwills This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Elingsh
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it
deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod
are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the
frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset
can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit
porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed
ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.
Originally Posted By: rcooke This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Time for us all to relax. English is hard for us raised in it how about the person that it is the second language .It is time to have a KAWPHY . Every letter is wrong but most of us know what the word is . Strange language.
Originally Posted By: kbowles This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Everybody is so danged worried about the word “favour” but lets look at another word in the opening statement… “Your Self”… two words when apart from each other mean different things. But these are certainly TWO words. I think spell check would quite easily pass these as being spelled correctly. It would be up to an individual to not show his/her ignorance by placing them together, with no space when talking about, YOURSELF.
Now, go fourth and prospour 
Originally Posted By: Brian A. Goodman This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Is “danged” an actual word? Maybe in the U.S. dictionary.
In the Great American South all forms of "dang" are not only perfectly acceptable, they're considered practically genteel compared to some possible alternatives. 
dang, dang it, danged, ding-dang, etc.
As far as spelling and grammer in our profession goes, I can only quote my Dad:"Every piece of work is a portrait of the person who did it." While one can get carried away with anything, we are in a very real sense paid professional writers. It's half of what we do, so it is important that we do it pretty well.
