Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Mar 2015

Testing the Recognition and Perception of Errors in Context

Laura C. Brandenburg Wayland Baptist University

Abstract

This study tests the recognition of errors in context and whether the presence of errors affects the reader’s perception of the writer’s ethos. In an experimental, posttest only design, participants were randomly assigned a memo to read in an online survey: one version with errors and one version without. Of the six intentional errors in version one, on average, readers only noticed two errors, which suggests that readers notice some but not all errors. The ethos ranking for the writer was also statistically significant between the two versions, suggesting that the presence of errors can affect the writer’s ethos.

Journal
Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
Published
2015-03-01
DOI
10.1177/2329490614563570
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
argument affect and writing
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (9)

  1. Baker et al. (2025)
    Business Communication and Editing Students’ Evaluations of Written Error: An E…
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  2. Tomlinson (2023)
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  3. Mathis et al. (2023)
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  4. McDonough et al. (2021)
    Instructor Evaluation of Business Student Writing: Does Language Play a Role?
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  5. Gubala et al. (2020)
    Do Writing Errors Bother Professionals? An Analysis of the Most Bothersome Erro…
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  1. Luijkx et al. (2020)
    The Effect of Dutch Student Errors in German Business Letters on German Professionals
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  2. Boettger et al. (2018)
    Analyzing Error Perception and Recognition Among Professional Communication Pra…
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  3. Wolfe et al. (2016)
    Grammatical Versus Pragmatic Error: Employer Perceptions of Nonnative and Nativ…
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  4. Arduser (2016)
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CrossRef global citation count: 11 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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