Does grammar and spelling matter to you in a review?

Over the past couple years, I've noticed a huge trend in gaming sites (other than Giantbomb) using horrible grammar, and spelling things totally wrong. An excerpt from a recent Gamespot article published todayreads " usually when they're prefer to be doing something else.", and then goes on to say that Civ players would rather nuke things the whole game instead of actually playing. I'm not sure if it's just me, but it totally throws the credibility of an article or review out the window for me.  How do you guys feel about that kind of stuff?

it just proves that any idiots can work as a reviewer, or they could be just too tired to check their grammar and spelling 

No, not at all.  
If it did there would hardly be anything left worth reading on the internet. 

Most definitely, misuse of grammar does bother me. But I can forgive, if it is a small one time mistake.

I can let small grammar mistakes go, but if the whole review seems like it was written by a 12 year old, my credibility for that site or reviewer goes out the window.

I'm hardly one to judge on a reviewers grammar and spelling, so I generally ignore the simple mistakes I may come across (as I've never encountered a total mess of a professional review on the sites I frequent). Obviously if it's a user review aswell, it's much more natural to let them slide by.

Professional reviews? yes User reviews? nah it can be as sloppy as possible as long as I can read it and I get the points then I have no problem with a user review having bad spelling or grammar.

It always matters to me. One of my pet peeves.

Yes it does. Which I why I never, ever bother with user reviews.

@Abyssfull: Yeah, I don't really mind if it's a user review; I mean, most people just throw up what they're thinking, and try to put it in some kind of format, which I can appreciate - they're not getting paid to do this. But I can't stand it when I see professional reviewers constantly slip up, like they've got no editing or proofreading staff; and go on to say things they really shouldn't. IGN I find has really cracked down on this lately, while other sites seem to be getting worse and worse. 

It's generally not the writers job to check their own grammar in professional publications..that job goes to the Copy Editor.
my brain doesn't really linger on every single word, so i may glaze over some misspellings...it's only when i come to a dead stop and have to decypher what the hell one sentence is actually trying to say, that bugs me.

@ Everybody: Yeah, exactly what I was saying to Abyssfull, no problem with user reviews being a little sloppy, but guys who are getting paid to deliver a decent, unbiased review shouldn't be able to slide misspelling whatever they feel like; I don't care if it's rushed or not, take the extra 5 minutes and read over the article. Oftentimes, it's a half-page article or review; that can't take long. Doesn't MS Word have a context underline if you use a word wrong? Are they writing in notepad?

Grammar mistakes are a no-no.

It definitely matters to me, though as someone who writes a lot for a living, it doesn't mean the reviewer is an idiot. It's just simple proofreading. Anyone writing a high volume of text is going to make mistakes. You always have to go back and proofread.

Depends where its coming from,, if the review is from a professional journalist, I would expect a professional looking review.

If it's just a couple typos it doesn't matter. If errors are prevalent throughout the article, it would suggest that neither the reviewer nor an editor read over it, which gives a bad impression. If the review is somewhat incoherent then it can probably be safely ignored. 

For me, it probably matters more than anything. I don't know why, but I have a hard time accepting someone's opinion if it isn't expressed well. Also it just makes you sound kinda dumb to have mistakes abound in your article. If I see one or two though, in an otherwise professional article, I'm totally cool with that. It happens. But if the general grammatical quality is low, I start making assumptions about the reviewer. 

" For me, it probably matters more than anything. I don't know why, but I have a hard time accepting someone's opinion if it isn't expressed well. Also it just makes you sound kinda dumb to have mistakes abound in your article. If I see one or two though, in an otherwise professional article, I'm totally cool with that. It happens. But if the general grammatical quality is low, I start making assumptions about the reviewer.  "

Generally yes.  A small (easy to overlook) grammar error may get a pass but in general I expect better from people who are paid to do that stuff.  My tolerance for sloppy grammar and spelling is pretty low.
 
Copy editors are one thing, but after a point it looks like the person writing the review forgot that the point of a review is to convey ideas with words, and that undermines their credibility in a pretty big way.

Certainly, a simple typo I can accept will get through now and then, but you shouldn't be a journalist if you don't have a concept of correct grammar and spelling. Get someone to proof-read your stuff before you post something. You're paid to do a job, you should do it properly.

Normally I could care less about spelling.  (Personal communications)  But journalists by trade work with language and therefore, to be good at  their trade must also be proficient with language.  I don't care what the subject, it's not the fact that you play video games that makes you a good journalist, it's your communications skills.  The subject matter is largely secondary.  Bad grammar, spelling and poor copy edit skills are laziness.

In this world, to be taken seriously, grammar and spelling always matter. but on a seid note i ated lunsh not to long a go...

There's a ' missing in a "can't" up there... and it's "COULDN'T care less", please...
 
Interesting thing obout spelling:
 
As lnog as the frist and lsat ltetres of the word are corcert it msolty deos not matetr waht odrer the rest of the letrets in the wrod are arargend as our barins tend to rwerok them for undetrsanabdlliity (touhgh rlleay long wdros mhigt cosnufe anwayy).

" There's a ' missing in a "can't" up there... and it's "COULDN'T care less", please...  Interesting thing obout spelling:  As lnog as the frist and lsat ltetres of the word are corcert it msolty deos not matetr waht odrer the rest of the letrets in the wrod are arargend as our barins tend to rwerok them for undetrsanabdlliity (touhgh rlleay long wdros mhigt cosnufe anwayy). "

The odd typo here or there is not a big deal to me. But an obvious disregard of grammar bothers me no matter where it comes from. Even on a forum I tend to ignore people if they spell like illiterate 4 year olds.

One or two small mistakes are fine because nobody is perfect, but I don't take anyone that can't construct proper sentences seriously.

It matters... but it matters less than just about everything else. I'd much rather read a review that's riddled with grammatical errors and misspellings but contains expert-level criticism than a grammatically flawless review that has nothing of value to say.

" @OldGuy said:

" There's a ' missing in a "can't" up there... and it's "COULDN'T care less", please...  Interesting thing obout spelling:  As lnog as the frist and lsat ltetres of the word are corcert it msolty deos not matetr waht odrer the rest of the letrets in the wrod are arargend as our barins tend to rwerok them for undetrsanabdlliity (touhgh rlleay long wdros mhigt cosnufe anwayy). "

Damn.  Sorry.  Oh- also I understand the linguistic argument that spelling is largely  not useful for effective communication.  However I also understand the linguistic argument that proper grammatic structure is innate, and therefore required for effective communication.  I don't think I mean 'proper' as in college paper style proper.  I think I mean proper as in using a generally accepted grammatical structure with certain proficiency is required to effectively communicate.  I can't remember the linguist who worked out this theory, and if I did I'd put his name here.  Sorry. "

I went to a Liberal Arts college where I received a degree in English. Due to my background, it really urks me to see misspellings and grammatical errors in reviews, articles, etc.  Though, I have not had that problem with Giantbomb.  
 
As a former copywriter, I have to say you cannot always rely on a Copy Editor, or any editor for that matter, to catch all mistakes.  
 
Three words: Elements of Style. 
 
Or you can always blame the WYSIWYG.

I can stand a typical case of "the the" or something like that. Everyone does that sometimes. 
But when I see consistent incorrect use of your/you're it starts to bug me.

It really does bother me. Maybe it shouldn't, since a person's use of grammar doesn't exactly determine whether or not they know what they're talking about, but it does bug me. Even in articles. IGN just made a GTAV wishlist article, and they refer to the GTAIV character Dwayne as "Forge". I won't lie, it took me a couple minutes to remember the guy's name, but what the heck, man?

It completely ruins it. They're writing for a living, the least they could do is be careful about those things.

If the reviewer cant spare the time to look over his review why should I spare the time to read it?

A person who is paid to write is someone who is expected to do so to the best of their ability.  If their ability is consistently poor, then they aren't willing to improve or aren't capable thereof and so then they should find other means of employment.  This is as true for garbage collection as it is for games journalism. 

It adds a layer of professionalism that you just can't get if you have spelling mistakes. 
 
If you fuck up your spelling and grammar, you CANNOT be taken seriously.

Yes, massively.  It shows a lack of effort and skill if you make spelling errors when writing a review.  It would make me question the integrity of the review.

Its very important. My grammer is terrible and thats why I don't write reviews. When I write threads in the forums I spend ages going over them to make sure they're right. I'm sure if I had paid more attention at school I probably wouldn't have to go to such lengths.
 
PS I have no fucking idea when to use a comma outside of making lists. lol

An occasional small mistake is fine, but frequent bigger mistakes make me doubt the writing ability of the reviewer, and the competence of the editing team.

I tend to be forgiving when it comes to digital content that was posted in a short time-frame.
 
With print media, however, it is unforgivable.  
 
This applies only to spelling mistakes. Everyone screws up spelling. Grammar mistakes are not typos and tend to imply that the author didn't simply make a mistake, but never knew the proper method. Anyone who is paid to write for a living should have a decent knowledge of grammar.

An article is supposed to have flawless grammar and spelling imo. If not I feel the same way, credibility gets thrown out the window.

I'm like everyone else, if it is infrequent I don't give a fuck but if it's a lot, I'll get pissy.

Yes......................Are you expecting more, or something?