It’s not often that proofreading – or lack of – becomes a front page news story, but that’s exactly what happened last week, thanks to a slip of the keyboard by Labour leader Ed Miliband. It seems everyone is on Twitter these days, even shadow PMs, and in a tweet about the death of Blockbusters’ …
There was an interesting report on the BBC website a few weeks ago that backed up what I’ve been saying for ages – typos and spelling errors really can cost you money, and using a proofreader can increase your sales. Online entrepreneur Charles Duncombe wanted see if spelling errors had any effect on website sales. …
I know I probably bang on about the importance of proofreading a little too much but it really should be a vital part of the process whenever you create marketing materials – and not just an afterthought. Time and time again I find evidence that proofreading after the event can be an expensive exercise! The …
While you can learn to proofread, the vast majority of professional proofreaders would probably agree with me that the ability to spot typos and errors is actually a gift, something you’re born with, rather than a learned skill. In fact, it’s probably more like a curse – because when you are a natural proofreader you can’t just switch off the eagle eyes!
As a professional proofreader, most of the errors I pick up are fairly unexciting, but there have been a few high profile ones recently that bring home just how important proofreading really is. I hope the following will bring a smile to your face – and also make you double check your work from now on (or, better still, send it to me!)
