After nine years and three billion miles, the New Horizons Spacecraft has reached the outskirts of our solar system and taken photos of Pluto, the farthest planet from our sun (although some have downgraded Pluto from being an official "planet” to being a "dwarf planet”). Among the findings is that tiny Pluto has five moons circling it. It also has an icy surface and a lot of gas, particularly nitrogen and methane. But one of the more interesting discoveries is a big heart shape on the side of Pluto. This may redefine the meaning of the phrase "plutonic” love!

Now if you are really into correct spelling and abhor the misuse of the English language, you will know that a non-sexual affection for someone is actually called "platonic” love, but it is often confused with the word "plutonic,” which is defined in geology as igneous rocks that have heated up to the melting point and then slowly cooled down. I know a few geologists who have plutonic love for rocks, but the rest of us are simply making ourselves out to be linguistic idiots when we smile at a friend and proclaim our relationship to be purely plutonic!

Words mean something. They are intended to help us communicate with each other. You are reading this blog post and allowing me to pass on information to you. However, so much information is pushed quickly in business each day that the stopgap measures that makes sure proper grammar, sentence structure and misspellings do not happen are pushed aside for the sake of speed – and spell check/auto correct has made us all lazy slugs when it comes to this. If your job includes writing for your company, make sure you are taking the time to proofread everything before it is posted. Whenever possible, this should be done by someone other than the person who wrote it.

One of biggest mistakes I see in business communications is at the very basic level of grammar. Not knowing the proper verb tense to write with a singular or plural noun (he jumps, we jump), the mistaken use of apostrophes in personal pronouns (its, his, hers don’t need an apostrophe to show possession), and the mix up of words that are homophones – they sound the same, but are not spelled the same and have different meanings. That would include the confusion with there, their and they’re; to, too and two; led – to be guided and lead – the metal; our and are; among others.

Why am I making such a big deal about this? Everyone drops a preposition at the end of a sentence every now and then. Why must we have these rules to live by! (Yes, I did it on purpose!) It is one thing if you are texting and your thumbs are getting the best of you, but business communication is much different, especially marketing communications. The words you use reflect intelligence or ignorance. They are the measure by which you are judged. It is the job of marketing to guard the reputation of the company brand. Poor communication is heading in the wrong direction.

Every year I give a talk to college seniors about landing a job. One of the things I stress are the words they use to communicate on their resumés and cover letters. No one is perfect, but your resumé better be. HR people are looking for a reason to eliminate you as they sift through resumés, many times by the dozens, looking for a candidate who looks good on paper. The same is very true of your corporate blog, your web site, brochures, e-mails, press releases, etc. I look at marketing communications much like getting that first job out of college. I have to impress the customer with the words I use. One faulty sentence, one misspelled word, one grammatical miscue and it can eliminate my product or service from consideration.

If you have warm feelings when you see the photos of the big heart shape on the side of Pluto, make sure you don’t say something really stupid to your friends. Better yet, when you are communicating on behalf of your company, double check what you have written with someone who can give it the critical eye before you send it out for thousands of eyes to see. The reputation of your company is riding on your words.

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Photo courtesy of NASA