I have been following this forum for several years now - across 3 countries and 2 different consultancies. I value it as a networking tool, and I am truly believe it is unique in nature. I used to be amused by people that would correct others spelling - I could never imagine taking time out of my day to post a wholy unconstructive post to reprimand someone for his use of correct punctuation / spelling. Now however, I have to come and say something. If you take the time off out of your day, to come and post here - telling someone how to spell 'thier' or 'their' - you are a looser with a capital L. I usually post on this site in a hurry, perhaps with 6 open browsers, whilst on the phone and eating a sandwhich - I presume others can identify with this scenario. I therefore, consider the content of what I write of paramount importance - NOT if I forgot my apostrophe when writing youre. Cause guess what - I still went to Harvard, still got my 6 figures, still have my pipeline - and yes - I use a spellchecker. When I was interning at BCG - one of the most talented partners I ever met, wrote letters in Excel. At first I was shocked - but then i appreciated that everyone has thier own eccentricities.

Jeez- you've really been bottling this up for a few years haven't you. I agree that there are a few anal posters but seriously dude, try yoga or something or you'll cardiac by the time you're 45. Did you ever notice that another annoying habit is when people write something along the lines of "obviously I'm great because I went to/work at X, and I earn X $ therefore I must be a human being of worth? that aside don't bust a blood vessel.

Fair point about the spelling Pedro, but I have to a pedant about your example. Writing letters in Excel isn't an "eccentricity" - it's technological incompetence. Using an obscure alternative would eccentric e.g. if someone used Star Office while the rest of the office used Microsoft Word. The programs have proadly the same core capabilities and the saved files can interchanged, so it is a choice of process to come to the same outcome. However, to use entirely the wrong tool for the job is incompetence and results in outputs that are not comprehensible or usable by others. Using Excel to write letters is an example of that - other members of the office and clients would not reasonably expect to have to convert the file in order to use it. The same reasoning applies to spelling and grammar - if I was to siht ekil epyt (type like this) you would not easily understand me. It may be an eccentricity that I like to write backwards, but if it is the only way I know how to type and I do not adapt to suit the people I am working with, I would deserve ridicule from everyone on this forum.

How does the fact that there is one mental dud at BCG prove that poor spelling is acceptable. Partners at MBB are notorious for being technological dinosaurs, as any fule kno.

I don't think it's about ridicule at all. It's about clarity and credibility.If you're sloppy in your writing, perhaps that's an indication of sloppiness in other aspects of your work. Would I give more credence to the proposal that is well-written or the one that has a number of basic errors? I know what my first choice would be - regardless of the brand on the letterhead!Loving Mike's response, by the way. Especially the last part. Cracker!

Dear Mr. Boxershorts, If you value a post on top-consultant as much as a proposal - well. You've said enough. Cracker.

Hi Pirlo,That's hardly the point, is it? You know exactly what I mean.If you can help it, you should ensure that all your communication is clear and error free. Respect for your audience comes into it on this site as much as anywhere, I reckon.PS Who said I was Mr?

At first I thought this was a wind up when he said you're a "Looser with a capital L" - it is of course spelt "Loser" but I think pointing that out will only add more fuel to the fire!Of course spelling and grammar are important. They are essential in consulting as we have no physical product to sell so everything we give to clients is through communication. If you can't do that properly then, well, it's damn near impossible to be credible. I have worked with one consultant who was really quite acutely dyslexic but had hidden it during recrtuitment. Watching him run a client workshop with a flipchart and pen was genuinely one of the most excrutiating experiences I've had in consulting. He was a nice guy, just couldn't make it work.Anyway, I think in the majority of cases on here it is just laziness and/or ignorance rather than dyslexia. Sure, one or two mistakes is allowable when typing quickly, but consultancy requires you to produce high quality outputs in very short spaces of time, so how do you cope? Using spellchecker is simply not good enough, you can bet there's still mistakes left in there.