MINDING your commas and full stops could make the difference between getting promotion or not, according to new research.

The study by recruitment specialist Office Angels found 84 per cent of bosses believe excellent work is completely devalued by sloppy spelling and poor grammar.

Research among 1,500 employers nationwide found three-quarters regard a high degree of literacy as an essential skill and staff who demonstrate attention to detail are more likely to be on the fast track to promotion.

Work peppered with sloppy spelling and poor grammar left one in five bosses fuming, while more than half would perceive the worker as lazy and unprofessional.

More than one in three managers said they would not read any further if they spotted a number of literacy errors in work. But while bosses have little patience with badly written work, half of them admitted they frequently do not check their own material.