Do You Cheque Your Spelling?

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Created on Tuesday, 14 February 2012 08:53

By Jens Thomsen, Impact Brussels

Okay, I know this topic may seem a little low tech and old fashioned. Usually this newsletter is about online communications and we all know that spell check is a basic tool in any reasonably equipped word processing software package. The software runs the spell check for us, so why bother?

Because it doesn't - and yes, I know I didn't spell “check” correctly in the headline and you know what? My word processing software didn't react at all, it was dead asleep.

I'm an avid user of word processing software, but I'm no technical expert. I cannot tell you if the spell check functionality of one software brand is better than those of other brands, however I've never come across word processing software that did it all for me.

The software can check your spelling, but it can be easily fooled if you use correctly spelled words in the wrong context. Like if you use 'cheque' instead of 'check'. And if you edit your documents through cutting and pasting you can easily make the mistake of cutting or pasting too much so a word is either missing or left in the text where it's no longer needed. Very often your word processing software will not detect such mistakes.

Proofread your documents

To cut a long story short: If you want to be sure that your documents are flawless when it comes to spelling and grammar you must make proofreading a habit of yours. And of course you want to proofread your documents if you are going to publish them!

But proofreading is tedious, and if you are stressed because of a looming deadline it can be difficult to focus your attention on spelling and grammar. However you must do it, and here is how I've found it can be done:

When you draft your document, do it without thinking about spelling and grammatical detail. Focus on the structure of the document and the information you want to include. There are a few things you want to get right from the very beginning, however. These are names, dates and numbers. Try to get this kind of information right as it may take a long time to double check it later.

When you're done with drafting and adjusting your copy it's time for proofreading. Do not start proofreading unless you're absolutely satisfied with your copy as it's important that you're able to focus on spelling and grammar.

Bite the bullet

Now you go through your text word by word, sentence by sentence to check that spelling and syntax is correct. Try to ignore the fact that you just wrote the copy yourself, because very often it's difficult to detect your own mistakes. You still have the sentences fresh in you head so you tend to see what you think you wrote, not what you actually did write.

You must be disciplined when you're proofreading. Try to imagine that you're proofreading somebody else's copy, not your own, and break it down into individual sentences and words so you avoid seeing what you think you just wrote, but what's actually there.

Proofreading is only difficult because it's so boring that you may easily get distracted by almost anything happening around you. But it's worthwhile biting the bullet to get the job done. Few things are as undermining to your communications as getting a name wrong or forgetting a few words in a sentence. Most readers are impatient, they simply stop reading if they cannot easily understand what they read.