Every day, I seem to find at least one printed or Web item that contains a typo, grammatical error, or some other text-related mishap. The average consumer might miss some of these mistakes. But the writer in me scratches his head in wonder.
I realize that, in this day of instant messaging and similar quick forms of written communication, we are learning that punctuation, capital letters and even correct spelling are optional. But for God's sake, professional communicators need to know when to turn the filter on and off.
The people and companies we write for depend on us, not only to get the message across clearly and effectively, but to make sure we don't forget that all-important ® (registered trademark) or transpose the digits in a phone number. Yes, proofreading is a pain in the tuchus. That may be why so many simply cross their fingers and hope the client proofed the work. Dangerous thinking.
Look at it this way: you begrudgingly pay monthly for property insurance, life insurance, health insurance, etc. You rarely use them, but does that mean you will ever cancel them? I'm hoping your answer is "no." We don't like paying for insurance, but not having it could mean something much more costly. Proofreading is insurance. By plunking down our chunk of time, we are insuring ourselves against everything from embarrassment to a very expensive mistake.
For professional copywriters, proofing is part of the job (hopefully). As society continues to relax the rules of correspondence, I'd like to remind everyone that accuracy still counts in real life.
Who's writing your copy? Are you well covered?
