Proof Positive: The Importance Of Proofreading

By Author: Amber McNaught
Total Articles: 3
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Last week I was having a quick browse on eBay when something caught my eye. "Black patient shoes!" screamed the headline. "Must see!"

"Wow!" I thought. "Patient shoes! What are they when they&#39re at home?" I clicked on the link. The shoes appeared. Black they certainly were. But &#39patient&#39? No. Or not as far as I could see, anyway. These, you see, were patent shoes -- as in &#39patent leather&#39. And very nice they were too -- just what I was looking for, and in my size. Did I buy them though? Not on your life. I didn&#39t buy the "gorgeous sequence dress" I found a few minutes later, either. (Answers on a postcard if you can guess what a "sequence" dress is...)

My reasoning was simple. If the sellers of these items couldn&#39t be bothered to take the time and care to make sure they&#39d got the name of the product right, and spelt it correctly, then how on earth could I trust them with the more complex matter of accepting my payment and sending out my patient shoes? The answer: I couldn&#39t. The sloppy spelling had created the impression of a sloppy seller. It had ...
... also lost them a customer.

So it is with business. You may think that a couple of spelling mistakes in an email or report don&#39t matter. They do. Just ask all of the prospective job candidates whose applications didn&#39t make it out of the slush pile because their covering letter was littered with typos. They don&#39t get an interview because they&#39ve already made themselves look careless; if your website is a mess of bad grammar and spelling, then it doesn&#39t matter how great your product or service is - you already look unprofessional. And if your marketing literature is littered with mistakes... forget it!

Whether you&#39re a large-scale business or a small-time seller, proofreading is something you really can&#39t afford to skimp on. It&#39s also something you shouldn&#39t try to do yourself. As any professional writer will tell you, when you work on a piece of writing you become blind to its faults. No matter how carefully you re-read it, you see what you think is there. That&#39s probably why last year a well known news website confidently predicted that John Kerry would "knot" win the US election. And why my accountant keeps writing to me about "teh business."

If you&#39re serious about your professional image, get someone else to proofread your brochures, website, letters and adverts. And steer clear of patient shoes... Copyright © 2005 Amber McNaught About Amber: Amber McNaught runs a proofreading and editing service via her own business, Hot Igloo Productions - visit http://www.hotigloo.co.uk for details.