Holly Mackerel!
Some spelling mistakes are more distracting than others. A couple of weeks ago, I was reading an online article in which the writer meant “holy mackerel” but actually wrote “holly mackerel.” I stopped reading at that point. Sure, adding one extra letter is easy to do; that’s a forgivable mistake that I’m sure we’ve all made. (On a bit of a side note, writing “Holly Bible” repeatedly is somewhat less forgivable.) Unfortunately, I was so amused by the mental image of a fish wearing a festive Christmas wreath that I lost interest in whatever the article was about.
Am I easily distracted? Maybe, but so are lots of other readers. If you want readers to stick around to read what you wrote, watch out for silly little mistakes that might distract them. Yes, spelling matters.
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