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Writing Tips for Virtual Assistants, Bloggers, Human Resource Professionals & Everyone Else
Did you know that how you present yourself in writing, as well as what you write about, affects your image? If your writing is riddled with typos, misspellings, bad grammar, incorrect word usage, etc. then the image you portray of yourself is less than professional. If you want to be taken seriously by those who read what you write, then you want to write without obvious errors.
Is Proofreading is Out of Style?
It’s not hard to write like a professional. All it takes is a little proofreading. The problem is that, thanks to technology, proofreading is out of style. Before everyone had a computer, most writing was proofread by a secretary, administrative assistant or a publishing house’s proofreader or editor. You didn’t need to proofread what you wrote because a secretary, administrative assistant, etc. would proof it for you. They also made the necessary corrections. Your grammar’s not up to par? No problem; the secretary will fix it. Don’t know your “to” from your “too”? No problem, the secretary does, and she’ll fix that for you too. Mistakes in grammar, incorrect word usage, spelling errors, typos and incorrect capitalization and punctuation were caught by the secretary, administrative assistant, etc.
Typos, Misspellings & Incorrect Word Usage, Oh My!
With the advent of the computer, word processing programs and spell checking software, everyone can write and self-publish a book, a blog, an ebook or whitepaper or just comment on someone else’s blog. Unfortunately, many of these writings are so riddled with typos, misspellings, incorrect word usages, etc. that one begins to despair about the quality of education our citizens are receiving.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a grammarian, but I do take the extra steps necessary to eliminate obvious mistakes.
Technology is the Culprit
After chewing on the subject for a while, it began to dawn on me that the problem wasn’t that people are uneducated and/or illiterate; the problem was that people were relying on technology to correct their mistakes. Instead of proofreading their writing before publishing/submitting/posting, they were running them through a spell checker and assuming that the spell checker would find everything that’s wrong. As any professional virtual assistant (VA) can tell you, that’s not so. (Sorry, but I had to slip that in there; it’s an important keyword for me.) LOL!
Spell Checkers Alone Won’t Cut It
A spell checker doesn’t know the difference between to, too and two; their, there and they’re; here and hear; your and you’re; whose and who’s; and a rash of other commonly misused words. Spell checkers won’t find grammatical errors unless you tell (set) it to find grammatical errors.
Tips for Professional Writing
So that your writing always portrays you well, here are some writing tips that will help you look like a professional in everything you write.
- If English isn’t your native language and you’re writing for an English-speaking audience, hire someone to proofread everything you write.
- If English is your native language and you’re writing for an English-speaking audience, proofread or hire someone to proofread everything you write.
- Don’t just rely on spell checking programs; spelling checkers don’t find instances of incorrect word usage. They don’t find all misspellings, and they don’t find all typos. Proofread as well as spell check.
- Set your spell checking program to check grammar too.
- If you’re going to blog, write articles, write ebooks, whitepapers or reports, invest in grammar checking software.
- After you’ve spell checked, grammar checked and proofread, put your writing aside for ten minutes, and go do something else.
- After the ten minutes is over, go back to your writing and proofread it one more time, or ask someone else to proofread it for you.
Now you’ve done everything (short of hiring someone to do your writing for you) in your power to make sure your writing portrays you as a professional and not a hobbyist.
