You should proofread your writing rather than rely on the spelling and grammar check of your computer. Grammatical errors or even what most
persons would label as typographical errors, or typos as they are more commonly, known can spoil an otherwise appealing website, article or promotion. In the public space when you present yourself to the world a few mistakes can undermine your credibility. Website content or blogs with errors can make your market or audience uncertain about doing business with you. You have to proofread your writing in order to correct any errors you may have inadvertently made. Do this before releasing your writing to the attention of the public or your audience.
You should not rely on Spell Check because it does not distinguish between homonyms or words that sound alike but have different meanings. If you write pear when you intended to write pair it will not be flagged as an error. In the meantime your sentence will have an entirely different meaning to what you intended or it will have no meaning at all.
Spell Check will alert you to misspelt words but it will not recognise when the word you use is incorrect. Here are some examples.
Mothering is at the root of all out biology
New model phone breath new life into company.
If push to came to shove
Of these three examples only the second was flagged as an error and the spelling and grammar tool did not recognise it as an agreement error but thought it was a fragment.
Can I trust you?
If you allow mistakes to appear in your writing in the final versions of your blog post, article or letter you may give the impression of being inept. Some readers say they think of such writers as fraudulent or dishonest.
I always think that the person whose site has a lot of grammar or spelling mistakes will also be careless about other aspects of the site such as security.
One site advertising a mobile wallet says:
Your app in protected via PIN and password.
This mistake on a site that is providing a product that will have access to your financial information does not inspire confidence in the site or its owners to keep your financial information safe.
Spellcheck would not recognise this mistake because “in” is a word. If the writer had taken the time to proofread the content then such a mistake would have been easily identified.
I am reluctant to buy even a T-shirt from a supplier if there are mistakes or what some would dismiss as typos in the description of the product. It leads me to expect that the product would be inferior. below is an example of a mistake in writing the description of the product.
Women’s printed surplus dress
The writer of this description intended to write “surplice dress”. The spelling and grammar check tool did not recognise the error. You have to be careful in writing your product description because that is your chance to talk to your customer. A mistake here could cause you to lose your customer. A “surplus” dress is one that might seem as not belonging to the higher quality inventory. A “surplice” dress on the other hand describes the style of the dress. In cases like this the human element is superior and a good proofreading eye will give you a corrected written description of your product.
Proofreading screens your writing more thoroughly than the computer’s spelling and grammar tool. You can still use your spell check tool but for confidence and accuracy follow up with a thorough proofreading of your writing.
photo credit: Nemo’s great uncle #3558 truck enterence [sic] only via photopin (license)
photo credit: marcoverch Brille, Tastatur und Kaktus-Kerze vor buntem Hintergrund via photopin (license)