We’re all busy. If you write in a business environment, you send and respond to emails, put together reports or memos, and contribute your words to a multitude of other projects. You type away on your desktop, laptop of smart phone. But do you wait after you’ve written something, take a minute to recalibrate and then reread what you wrote before hitting that “send” button? Probably not.
I’m as guilty as the next person, repeatedly finding typos and grammar errors in emails I’ve sent, even draft press releases or statements written for the company president. Was I embarrassed? Yes.
One year in my annual review, my boss at the time had recently been let go, and the president gave me feedback instead. His sole comment was that I had a typo on a press release we’d sent out. Yikes! I was a one-man band, so there wasn’t a true review process, but that still didn’t excuse the error, which in a public way made the company look less professional.
Checking your copy before you send it (wherever that may be) is one of the most important things you can do in a professional environment. Reread it. Take an extra minute. Think about exactly what you want to say. How did you sound?
Better than you checking, hopefully you have someone in your chain-of-command who can eyeball your work if you send materials that are public-facing. If not, it’s even more important that you focus intently on giving your copy an extra read.
We’ve all gotten the text or email with words omitted, transposed or redundantly inserted. When that happens, you don’t look good, nor does your company. Check your copy. You’ll be glad you did.
I’m as guilty as the next person, repeatedly finding typos and grammar errors in emails I’ve sent, even draft press releases or statements written for the company president. Was I embarrassed? Yes.
One year in my annual review, my boss at the time had recently been let go, and the president gave me feedback instead. His sole comment was that I had a typo on a press release we’d sent out. Yikes! I was a one-man band, so there wasn’t a true review process, but that still didn’t excuse the error, which in a public way made the company look less professional.
Checking your copy before you send it (wherever that may be) is one of the most important things you can do in a professional environment. Reread it. Take an extra minute. Think about exactly what you want to say. How did you sound?
Better than you checking, hopefully you have someone in your chain-of-command who can eyeball your work if you send materials that are public-facing. If not, it’s even more important that you focus intently on giving your copy an extra read.
We’ve all gotten the text or email with words omitted, transposed or redundantly inserted. When that happens, you don’t look good, nor does your company. Check your copy. You’ll be glad you did.