Great writing and great proofreading don’t always coexist in the same individual. In fact, many brilliant writers were lousy spellers. Hemingway and Fitzgerald were terrible, so were Agatha Christie and Jane Austen. George Washington was reportedly a bad speller, so was Einstein, and Leonardo Da Vinci probably couldn’t spell renaissance.
Often times it’s copy and context. The error on the marquee above is embarrassing and funnier because a school made the mistake.
Before we offer some proofing tips, dont have a fitt if you finde a goof in your copy. For one thing, our brains have their own auto-correct, and we usually understand what the writer meant regardless of the mistakes that were made. Just like you had no problem reading the first sentence of this paragraph.
Proofing Doesn’t End With Spellcheck
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
Spellcheck checks spelling. Fine. However, as the poem illustrates, the wrong word can be spelled correctly. Try to make sure your use of their, they’re, or there, is correct.
Source Material
You can look things up online but (believe it or not) not everything online is accurate! In fact, studies have estimated 60% of online information is wrong. So, be at least a little old school and keep a dictionary within reach for spelling, along with a copy of the AP Style Guide, the Chicago Manual of Style and Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White. Those are great resources but, (there’s always a caveat), keep in mind that advertising copy is a creative endeavor not a thesis.
Hard Copy
It’s actually easier to proof on paper. It’s less irritating to your eyes. Computer screens can cause shoulder and neck strain, focusing issues, headaches and so on. Use a red pen. Circle stuff, make notations, line things out. Write things down, don’t leave mistakes to memory or someone else’s interpretation.
Printing everything isn’t an environmentally friendly thing to do, so if you want to stay on screen, use a vision friendly font. Helvetica, Verdana, Karla, Futura and Arial are among the easiest to read. Increasing the size of the font can help too.
Backwards
Read the sentence backwards. That forces you to “see” each word and makes it easier to catch a spelling or usage mistake.
Read Out Loud
Reading out loud is one of the best ways to notice sentences that are clumsy or unclear. Don’t perform, it’s not a Shakespearean soliloquy. You’re looking for things that are difficult to pronounce, sentences that go nowhere, alliteration that trips up your tongue. Another technique is to record what you’re reading. Things can stand out more when you are hearing and not having to concentrate on reading. When possible, use more than one set of eyes. Someone else might spot what you missed.
An Ounce Of Prevention
Proofreading can prevent embarrassment and, in some circumstances, avoid added costs. No client or agency wants to spot a typo or more significant mistake after thousands of brochures have been printed. If a mistake is relatively benign, the best thing to do is do better next time.
A Final Thought
