Improve your proof reading skills

Any piece of writing about your business is a reflection of your brand, so it needs to be polished and correct. Copy that contains poor spelling and bad grammar gives of the impression of laziness and lack of intelligence, which I’m sure, is never the intention of the writer.

Try out your proof reading skills on the paragraph below. How many errors can you spot?

Its important to poof read you’re work. While you may have reading it many times alraedy, characters can move around during the design proces, leaving your work looking shabby and potentially damaging to your brand,

There are 7 errors in the paragraph above. Did you find them all?

Improve your proof reading skills by using the helpful pointers below. Find and correct errors and typos before your copy is published.

Check Headlines

Headlines are the first thing to be read by your audience but are so often ignored in the proof reading process. Make a point of reading your headlines and checking for errors.

Call phone numbers

Don’t let your hard work go to waste and print the wrong phone number. It not only makes your organisation look silly, but can be a real pain to manage if large numbers of customers start calling the wrong number. Call all the phone numbers in your copy to ensure they are correct. (It’s also a good way to find out if the people answering calls are aware of any potential promotion etc. I’ll cover more on stakeholder management in another blog post)

Read the text backwards

Reading backwards is a great way to check for spelling errors. When we read, particularly if we’ve read something several times, our minds alter words for us and we understand the sense of the text without concentrating on each individual word. Reading backwards will allow you to look at each word and check the spelling.

Read the text aloud

Read your copy aloud and check for punctuation. Pay attention to your breathing as you do this and you will naturally see where commas and full stops are required.

Enlist the help of someone who’s not read the copy before

We all suffer from blindness to our own mistakes after reading and re-reading a document. So ask someone who’s not been involved in your project to proof read it for you. Just make sure they have a good grasp of spelling and grammar! This is also a perfect way to conduct a final “sanity” check over the document and ensure it all makes sense.

Explain acronyms

Check any acronyms have been explained. If not, then consider whether the target audience can reasonably be expected to know what they mean. If in doubt, then put the explanation in brackets after the first occasion the acronym is used.

Avoid industry jargon

It depends on your audience as to how much industry jargon you can use.  Jargon should be limited to copy targeted at those in your industry.  In most cases plain English is the best option for communication of any kind. If you are unsure if an industry jargon term will be understood, then the best solution is to find another word.

Know your apostrophes

Miss-use of the apostrophe is becoming more prevalent in the English language, and is a pet hate of mine. If you need a recap on the apostrophe’s use, this link is a handy reminder.

Spell in the correct language

Obviously you need to correct any spelling bloopers in your copy.  But also consider your audience’s nationality.  Commonly used words like “organise”, “centre” or “specialise” can aggravate British or Australian audiences when written as “organize”,” center” or “specialize”. Computer spell checkers often default to “English US” language. Check this and alter your document to the appropriate version of English to avoid inadvertently annoying your audience.

CraftWrite provides copywriting and editing across a variety of mediums. For help to produce top quality copy that will make your brand shine, contact Jill Bynon on jill@craftwrite.com.au