On the importance of proofreading…

How did they avoid making smutty words in this picture?

Have you ever been engrossed in a great novel, and suddenly you come across an error? It’s like being slapped in the face. You step back from the story, feeling let down and a bit annoyed that the little disarrangement of words had the audacity to mar your story. It’s a bit like trying on the most beautiful dress in the world, only to get to the checkout and realise it has a snag on it. And it’s the only one left in the store.

Writing is just a vehicle through which ideas are expressed. The best possible writing is unobtrusive, letting emotions, images and ideas flow through uninterrupted. Poor writing is difficult to relate to, as it shouts louder than the ideas it’s trying to impart.

This is why proofing your work is so important. Errors lurk in every sentence, trying desperately hard to slip in and trip you up when you’re not looking. They’re facetious little devils, and it’s much easier to have them than not.

Now we have all moved in to the digital age, away from illuminated manuscripts and slate, it’s easier than ever to let MS Word do most of the work for us. I still can’t spell words like recommended, but I know that when I type them wrongly, Word will come along and ping it back to how it should be. This makes me lazy, and I feel sometimes as if I’ve stopped learning.

It must be harder for kids at school these days to grasp great grammar, because there are so many cheats available now to help you avoid learning.

So. Here’s my primary message. If you let errors sneak in to your business communications and blog posts, you’re risking alienating your audience. They want to get to the heart of your message without being distracted by the small shock of encountering bad grammar or misspellings. One of the subtle ways to build up trust in your blog is to use your vehicle of words carefully, letting them lie dormant and unnoticed while the beauty of your ideas shines through.

If you ever find any errors in my blog, rest assured that I’ve made them on purpose, just to prove my point. Really.