Have you ever felt so embarrassed by a mass-produced typo that you felt like hunting down every copy of the document or object where it appeared?
We recently tweeted the front-page typo of a leading Nigerian newspaper reporting on news from “Dafur” instead of “Darfur.” The automatic reaction to the typo was: “How can I trust this information when the writer couldn’t even spell the main topic correctly?”
Sometimes, your typo may not have been shared with a large audience but its potential consequences remain heavy.
We edited a CV where the jobseeker had spelled the name of the company he worked for wrong. This begs the question: “How much attention did that person give to that job if he can’t even spell a name he saw every day?” Or worse still, “How am I sure that he worked for that company at all?”
Typos discredit a writer. They betray a lack of attention to detail and sometimes make the reader question your credibility. We all make typos and somehow reserve the right to judge others when we catch one. So, it’s so important that once you’re done with writing and self-editing your text, you take the time to proofread it.
Below are few quick and dirty tips to help you do this more effectively:
1. Increase the font size and the spacing of the text just before proofreading.
2. Read each word of your text out loud to hear any omission you may have made. The reason why we miss mistakes when we read over our text quietly is that we often read what we thought we wrote rather than what’s actually on the page.
3. Often, printing out the text you’re proofreading will help. Our brain makes lots of assumptions. Changing the format of what you’re reading (in this case, going from an electronic format to a print format) is just one of many tactics to make the text look fresh and prevent your brain from assuming.
4. The best way for a text to appear fresh, is for it to be fresh; so get someone else to read it.
Check out our blog for more writing, editing and proofreading tips: http://www.editiq.com/blog/
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EditIQ @editiq
EditIQ offers freelance editing and proofreading services to individual, non-government and corporate Nigerian clients. Our mission is to ensure that your text is clear, clean and compelling. We offer a discreet and timely service, working with freelance editors in Nigeria and abroad. We also offer free writing tips, news and information about events on our blog, Facebook page and via Twitter.Go to EditIQ's profile, and read more of his/her posts.
Some useful tips.
But have you tried reading aloud your 80,000 word manuscript?
Have you also tried printing out that volume on paper?
When you try it, let us know how it went.
Hey Kaycee,
Good point reading an 80k word manuscript aloud would be no mean feat, but it could be done chapter by chapter. I did it for a 50k word thesis! When I read my work aloud I actually just murmur the words to myself, so it is not like I am clearly enunciating every word but I find it really helps.
Crazy @kaycee at work…Hmm..Just trotting past
kaycee! loool. Thanks editi, this helped me. and kaycee. We ll get fresh eyes for anything more than the 2500 Ns word limit. We appreciate your input. God bless you.
I love what you do. Helpful!
Bia @Kaycee oginikwa? lol
Good Article. However, in my opinion, some typos are more “forgivable” than others. Misspellings of English words and incorrect grammatical structure definitely are taboos , on the other hand, foreign spellings can be overlooked (in as much as they should be avoided at all costs).
The tweetpic above is just a foreign misspelling , I personally didn’t notice it until your write-up called it to our attention. Still , it is a National Newspaper , they should have known better.
Thanks for the tips.
Thanks for the comment Aghoghosam. I disagree with your distinction about English vs. foreign words though! Sure there will always be errors in any text as long as human beings write and edit them, not machines, but I think the approach should be to try and catch as many as you can, no matter what language.
this is great – a real do it yourself tip
Helpful! Even in a 100k words write-up i think it’s better to take time and come out clean. Thanks editiq