Voila! The Importance of Editing
A typo or grammatical error can greatly devalue the professionalism of a brand. Who can forget the media fiasco around Old Navy’s misspelled t-shirt? Discussion and commentary blanketed the social space for days, calling out the missing apostrophe.
More recently on a popular design blog the classic explanation “Voila!” was spelled phonetically as “Wala!” Although not nearly as detrimental to the blog’s reputation as Old Navy’s mistake, such an obvious error did not miss the eyes of regular readers. Even within informal publications proofing should be essential.
Typos are bound to happen, we’ve all had our fair share, but it is important to take every step you can to avoid them.
Editing Tips
1. Don’t forget the power of spell check. Many blog, website and e-newsletter platforms don’t automatically proof content for misspellings. A good practice is to copy and paste your text into a Word document and use spell check before you hit publish. This effortless step can save you from simple mistakes.
2. Print out your document. Many find it easier to edit a hard copy versus digital. Computer screens can hurt your eyes and allow spacing or homophone slips to be missed.
3. Have someone else proof your write-up. No matter how many times you read and re-read your own piece it is easy to miss a fault like “voila” versus “viola.” Spell check won’t catch this either. A fresh pair of eyes can pick up mistakes you may have missed.
4. Focus. Don’t try and catch all your mistakes at once. Read one time for spelling errors, another time for repetition, again for grammar, etc. If you try to look for these things at one time it is almost impossible to catch them all. Although tedious, it helps.
5. Subscribe to grammar guides. My personal favorite is Grammar Girl. The website grammar.quickanddirtytips.com provides articles that break down how to avoid common mistakes. Their free e-newsletter subscription makes it easy for me to stay up-to-date on new style changes.
admin • January 25, 2012
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best practice, blog, blogging, Editing, Editing tips, error, Fiasco, grammar, media, missspelling, Old Navy, phonetic spelling, professionalism, proof read, spell check, spelling, typo, Voila