If you slept through English class back at school, you might not know the little tricks those of us who stayed up, learn't "I" after "E" except after "C". The dictionary, and spell check play a vital role in your professional and personal life. Don't let the difference between alphabets ruin your chances. Here's why it's oh-so important that you spell correctly, and what you are in store for if you don't.

How arrangement of letters in a word can decide your fate

If you screw up a love letter ...she'll scoot

Vibhuti bhatt, HR executive

I expect my man to have a command over any language that he uses to communicate in. If he wrote me a love letter with errors, I'd appreciate his feelings, but wouldn't reciprocate.

If you ruin a business mail ...you may be fired

Dharmesh Karmokar, professional in hospitality industry

We are expected to stay in touch with clients and suppliers. We rely on written communication. We cannot afford to send mails with errors as it can lead to confusion, besides leaving a bad impression about the company.

If you mispell in your CV ...you won't be considered

Samidha Parulekar, Assistant manager-HR

If a CV has too many errors, we don't bother calling the candidate for an interview, since it's evident that he/she is careless. That could reflect in other tasks he may be given or the responsibility his forthcoming job may demand.

If you can't spell, you are smart, not dumb: UK study

A team of researchers for the Collins dictionary in Britain have carried out a study, and come to a consensus that people often misspell a number of confusing words since they are too clever.  According to them, the most commonly misspelt English word is "supersede". Many come up with "supercede" because of their knowledge of other words like "intercede" or "precede".
* Consensus spelt "concensus" because the writer wrongly believes that it relates to the word "census" which comes from the Latin censere (means to assess).
* Liquefy is misspelt as "liquify" because they wrongly apply the spelling of liquid.
* Sacrilegious is misspelt as "sacreligious" (as with religious).

Tips to help you write clean copy

1) Keep a dictionary handy on your desk.
2) Always run a spell check on a word document.
3) Once you have checked a document for spelling errors, read it to ensure it makes sense.
4) If you don't have a dictionary handy, refer to sites like www.dictionary.com, to check spellings online.