Having read through the thread on "Spelling - It Matters" I am amazed at how many replies equated good spelling and good grammar with professionalism.
All too often in our field the term "professional" has been used as a synonym for "pseudo intellectual". It has been used to justify restrictive uniform codes, speech patterns and behaviours. In many ways it is probably the most misused term within our "profession". In my mothers day it was used to drive any married nurse from a career in nursing.
I think it is time to re-open the debate. Without becoming heated, without deriding each other or professing to a standard impossible to humanly achieve let us look at the term "professional" and decide what WE would like it to mean.