According to a report published recently, standards in written English are
falling. This is because people see email as an informal way of communicating
where the normal rules of grammar and punctuation do not apply. In a survey
by MSN, two-thirds of those aged 18-24 said that they were more concerned
about the content of their emails than grammatical correctness. Of older
users, one in four also admitted they were not concerned about grammatical
correctness in their messages.
Surprisingly, in the same survey, most people said they were annoyed by
errors in the emails they received. Annoyance with mistakes in conventional
letters was an even bigger problem. In another survey, bosses said they would
not do business with companies whose correspondence had mistakes in it.
Unbelievably, they thought it was worse than charging too much.