Article Surfing Archive

Last week I was having a quick browse on eBay when something caught my eye. *Black patient shoes!* screamed the headline. *Must see!*

*Wow!* I thought. *Patient shoes! What are they when they*re at home?* I clicked on the link. The shoes appeared. Black they certainly were. But *patient*? No. Or not as far as I could see, anyway.

These, you see, were patent shoes * as in *patent leather*. And very nice they were too * just what I was looking for, and in my size. Did I buy them though? Not on your life. I didn*t buy the *gorgeous sequence dress* I found a few minutes later, either. (Answers on a postcard if you can guess what a *sequence* dress is*)

My reasoning was simple. If the sellers of these items couldn*t be bothered to take the time and care to make sure they*d got the name of the product right, and spelled it correctly, then how on earth could I trust them with the more complex matter of accepting my payment and sending out my patient shoes? The answer: I couldn*t. The sloppy spelling had created the impression of a sloppy seller. It had also lost them a customer.

So it is with business. You may think that a couple of spelling mistakes in an email or report don*t matter. They do. Just ask all of the prospective job candidates whose applications didn*t make it out of the slush pile because their covering letter was littered with typos. They don*t get an interview because they*ve already made themselves look careless; if your website is a mess of bad grammar and spelling, then it doesn*t matter how great your product or service is - you already look unprofessional. And if your marketing literature is littered with typos * forget it!

Whether you*re a large-scale business or a small-time seller, proofreading is something you really can*t afford to skimp on. It's also something you shouldn*t try and do yourself. As any professional writer will tell you, when you work on a piece of writing you become blind to its faults. No matter how carefully you re-read it, you see what you think is there. That's probably why last month a well-known news website confidently predicted that John Kerry would *knot* win the election last year. And why my accountant keeps writing to me about *teh business.*

If you*re serious about your professional image, get someone else to proofread your brochures, website, letters, adverts. And steer clear of patient shoes*