As the holiday season and end-of-year deadlines approach, you’ll need to produce more documents in even less time.

Our November newsletter explains how to proofread when time is tight.

Learn More in This Course: Effective Proofreading Techniques

Company X Relaunches Wesbite with CEO Blog

How did the proofreading error of Wesbite (website) in the title get past multiple proofreaders?

Actually, proofreading errors are more common in titles, headings, text blocks and the text within illustrations, than in the full text article. This is a very common error that can easily happen. Once we write a title, heading, text block or illustration, and place it within a document, our eye tends to see it as an image, instead of text, so it is very easy to overlook a typo in these areas.

Proofreading Tip: As your final proofreading check, always carefully review the title of a document word by word. Then, verify spelling and check for typos in headings, text boxes and illustration text, again word by word, not as a visual whole.

The incorrect news release is here, as illustration.

Learn More in This Course: Effective Proofreading Techniques

According to the New York Times, despite the fact that “His BlackBerry was constantly crackling with e-mails,” Obama’s outgoing messages “are generally crisp, properly spelled and free of symbols or emoticons.”

So, if you want to emulate a highly skilled communicator, be like Obama and keep your electronic communication top notch.

Coincidentally, I stumbled across a press release for a potential client, also celebrating a ten year anniversary this year. They’re a great company, but I cringed. The first paragraph of their press release had both awkward phrasing and a grammar error. (All name and identities are changed):

July, 2008 Portland, OR – Company Name, Inc., a Portland management and IT consulting firm, celebrates its tenth year in business this month. Started in July, 1998, John Jones began the business in his Portland home with he and his wife, Karen, as the only employees of the company.

Reading this, you can feel the strained, awkward phrasing. It’s also incorrect. The error occurs with the phrase, “…in his Portland home with he and his wife.”

“with he” should be omitted, since it’s not needed for clarity. The sentence already indicates he started the business. So, better clarity would read:
“…in his Portland home with his wife, Karen.

Grammatically, it’s incorrect because an object pronoun should be used, not a subject pronoun:
“…in his Portland home with (him and) her.”

Check out the Purdue University Online Writing Lab for more information about subject and object pronouns.

Ten years in business is a big milestone. Proof the press release carefully.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: caroline@youremailhost.com
Date: Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 7:53 PM
Subject: Re: supplies
To: David@youremailhost.com

Hi David i did not get my supplies i am hear at work until 9pm. Did get delivered to my apartment

There are lots of issues here:
– I am confused about where these supplies are. Does Caroline mean they did or did not get delivered to her apartment? Also, if she has not yet returned to her apartment, how would she know if the supplies had or had not yet been delivered there? So, the main point is unclear.
–  A comma is missing after the salutation.
– The first sentence, beginning with “i did not get my supplies” should be capitalized at the start of the sentence and conclude with a period: “I did not get my supplies.”
– She is “here” at work, not “hear” at work.
– i did not get my supplies i am hear at work until 9pm is a fused sentence.

The recipient of this message is forced to guess at its meaning, and has only two choices, neither of which are productive:
1) Reply and ask for clarification (correct action, but wastes his time)
2) Guess at its meaning and move ahead, risking incorrect action.

The goal of every written communication should be to communicate exactly what a reader needs to know or do in one communication cycle. This example is obviously extreme, but ask yourself if you ever receive email responses asking for clarification of your message. If so, you need to tighten content so your reader can execute your request with no confusion.

I know we are all busy, but if we don’t take the time to proof our email messages for content and clarity and correct grammar before we send them, we cause our reader/s to waste their valuable time trying to decipher meaning or asking for clarification. Worse yet, they may take incorrect action.