Dont Rely on Your Spellchecker - or - The Importance of Good Proof Reading

Weather posting a page to your Website, writing a letter to a customer, or submitting an article for publication, it is extremely important to demonstrate how professional you are. Not only does a series of spelling and grammatical errors show a discourtesy to your readers, it makes you look amateurish. Potential customers will lose any trust they may have had in your business. Only a week or so ago, I read a classified ad asking me to visit their "sight" - needless to say I did not bother. If someone does not take care over their advertising, how reliable is the rest of their business?

Perhaps you are not very good at spelling - or typing - and your articles and letters are riddled with mistakes (probably when you were working for an employer you had a secretary to type your male) so, what are you going to do?

The first thing, but NOT the only thing, is to use your spellchecker. This is fine to get rid of the typos and obvious spelling mistakes, but does not correct any instances of you typing in the wrong word e.g. there (denoting a place) or their (belonging to them).

So, read your work back after you have written it. Many people find that actually reading out loud is a great way of spotting errors. If it is an important item, print it off and read it a little while after you have typed it. Ideally, get someone else to reed it and mark off any errors. When I was involved in publishing, it was always a strict rule, even with the most experienced writers, to get someone else to check their work. It is surprising how often one is unable to spot one's own mistakes.

So to summarise, use your spellchecker, re-read the item yourself, print out and proof read and ideally get someone else to do the proof reading.

One last point, make allowances for the fact that some articles are written in "British" English, as opposed to "American" English. So if you see colour spelled color, or centre spelled center, the author has not misspelled the word, he is just likely to be American (or at least has the American version of English on his spellchecker.)

And finally, there are three deliberate mistakes in this article where I have intentionally used the wrong word (at least I HOPE there are only three!!) in order to demonstrate the point I am making. The first three readers to email me detailing the errors will each be given a FREE ad in my newsletter and in the classified sevtion of my Web Site. murtagh@bigfoot.com?subject=TAD

About The Author

Tony Murtagh has spent all his career involved in sales, sales management, marketing and PR. He was a UK National Sales Manger (Major Accounts) for a mobile communications company, had his own publishing company producing a monthly Business to Business magazine and has acted as a PR consultant for a number of small businesses. He is now sharing his wide experience of sales, marketing and promotion in his new web site: - http://DevelopYourWebSiteAndYourself.com and in a weekly e-ezine Aardvark Marketing, which you can subscribe to from the site.

MORE RESOURCES:

Course shows companies what NOT to put in writing - Reuters

Coens nominated for writing prize - BBC News

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1i-0fd=Rurl=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/08/AR2009010802356.htmlcid=1287788727ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNGPH9onNw8LAFEY64B6Yhq7mnvLwAimg src=http://nt0.ggpht.com/news?imgefp=eP_HonB-ivoJimgurl=media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/01/08/PH2009010802357.jpg width=59 height=80 alt= border=1brfont size=-2Washington Post/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-0fd=Rurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7817304.stmcid=1287788727ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNFqLxgPiOWyLKEEOmshk7nwwlTaAACoens nominated for bwriting/b prize/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fBBC News,nbsp;UKnbsp;-/font nobr11 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Film-makers Joel and Ethan Coen have been nominated for a prize at the Writers Guild of America awards for their movie Burn After Reading. b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-1fd=Rurl=http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/9411cid=1287788727ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNEq4T2aweplvUPDvcUEWw0zppIIpwWGA Nominates Bashir, Chicago 10, Dark Knight/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrAnimation Magazine/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-2fd=Rurl=http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/burn-milk-up-wga-screenplay/story.aspx%3Fguid%3D%257B4B251FC1-2BEF-474F-8C29-F0D30CA43027%257D%26dist%3Dmsr_1cid=1287788727ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNG_Exi00l26RiNmdsPjysaWUxv9BA#39;Burn,#39; #39;Milk#39; up for WGA screenplay award/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrMarketWatch (press release)/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-3fd=Rurl=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gOFzJ8bKNlq6OOK73s530RLS40rwD95II3380cid=1287788727ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNFnbdeF7eJQ_Y4Zm_r42qnVhwCHYg`Dark Knight#39; bags WGA screenplay nomination/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrThe Associated Press/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1 class=pa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-4fd=Rurl=http://www.ifmagazine.com/new.asp%3Farticle%3D7385cid=1287788727ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNGCJo9Dw4PdUxaUPyv2SrKip3KRRgnobriFMagazine/nobr/anbsp;- a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-5fd=Rurl=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090108.BUZZ08-1/TPStory/Entertainmentcid=1287788727ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNEfPML3Q-eeoKU1CwgKM2c39zKs9QnobrGlobe and Mail/nobr/a/fontbr/font class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1287788727hl=ennobrall 486 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Gonzales writing book on years in Bush administration - Austin American-Statesman

Children#39;s creative writing class is Saturday at Writers#39; Gallery - Yucaipa/Calimesa News Mirror

The Flat Stanley Project gets kids reading, writing, and learning ... - Examiner.com

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/4i-0fd=Rurl=http://www.examiner.com/x-562-Book-Examiner~y2009m1d7-The-Flat-Stanley-Project-gets-kids-reading-writing-and-learning-geographycid=1287811701ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNFoB4ccLqS4bkbeYGLiLCPHHJZCGgimg src=http://nt2.ggpht.com/news?imgefp=Nj8BWNePNEUJimgurl=image.examiner.com/images/blog/author/img530michelle_kerns_photo.jpg width=80 height=67 alt= border=1brfont size=-2Examiner.com/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/4-0fd=Rurl=http://www.examiner.com/x-562-Book-Examiner~y2009m1d7-The-Flat-Stanley-Project-gets-kids-reading-writing-and-learning-geographycid=1287811701ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNFoB4ccLqS4bkbeYGLiLCPHHJZCGgThe Flat Stanley Project gets kids reading, bwriting/b, and learning b.../b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fExaminer.comnbsp;-/font nobr17 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1b.../b could scarcely have imagined that decades later his quirky creation would be used in bwriting/b and geography projects for schoolchildren around the globe. b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Russia says will restore gas when monitors in place - guardian.co.uk

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/5-0fd=Rurl=http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8216731cid=1287643687ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNF--HtfP4SMFMtw_jhsJAycEgeGpARussia says will restore gas when monitors in place/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fguardian.co.uk,nbsp;UKnbsp;-/font nobr3 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1b.../b Faulconbridge in Kiev, Marcin Grajewski in Brussels; Martin Santa in Bratislava; Jan Lopatka in Prague; bWriting/b by Jon Boyle; editing by Ralph Boulton)/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/5-1fd=Rurl=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DWDaHAtQVYSIcid=1287643687ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNGFnvxA_PlZvO44UiPh0z7orjvEQQVideo: The gas crisis in Europe online/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrfrance24english/nobr/fontobject width=448 height=356param name=movie value=http://www.youtube.com/v/WDaHAtQVYSI/paramparam name=wmode value=transparent/paramembed src=http://www.youtube.com/v/WDaHAtQVYSItype=application/x-shockwave-flashwmode=transparentwidth=448height=356/embed/objectbr/fontfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/5-2fd=Rurl=http://www.kyivpost.com/world/32802cid=1287643687ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNEWQ9UsrPB_ilTel-s_auKYdI13awGazprom: Yushchenko should work instead of bwriting/b letters/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrKyiv Post (subscription)/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/5-3fd=Rurl=http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSBRU00715620090108cid=1287643687ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNEvBoEmJlmqPYetBC_RXcGRVZ7u5wGazprom refuses to agree to EU gas monitoring plan/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrReuters/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1 class=pa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/5-4fd=Rurl=http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKPRA00230820090108cid=1287643687ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNHA_AMv9tnJSbR33iMjK4FAgva3_gnobrReuters/nobr/anbsp;- a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/5-5fd=Rurl=http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL84569920090108cid=1287643687ei=mWxmSePaGYu-9gSQxo3kBAusg=AFQjCNGb2I817fd7l6MLzLlvQMDYPxE1vQnobrReuters/nobr/a/fontbr/font class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1287643687hl=ennobrall 6,733 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Ex-broker guilty of writing bad check - Billings Gazette

The business press: The horror of writing your own obit - BloggingStocks

Manhattan Public Library holding art and writing contest for MLK ... - KTKA.com

How about if Steve Jobs smoked a pipe? - guardian.co.uk

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