This month’s
newsletter is about proofreading – an important
skill in today’s email-dependent business
world. If writing isn’t your strong suit
(or if English isn’t your first language),
keep in mind that I offer editing and proofreading
services for my clients.
Need someone to take
a quick look at an important email or proofread
a letter or proposal? Give me a call. If it’s
just a quick little job, there’s a good
chance I can even stop what I’m doing
and handle it for you immediately. As Your
On-Call Marketing Writer I can help with
all of your writing projects, both big and small.
Linda Coss
949-699-2749
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Proofreading
101 |
Your
company’s written words “speak”
for your business. Does your writing present
a professional image, or are your materials
filled with typos, misspellings, grammatical
mistakes or other errors? No matter how good
you are at what you do, documents containing
obvious errors will erode your credibility…whether
the errors are in your “formal”
marketing materials or your “informal”
emails and
letters.
Here
are some tips for effective proofreading:
1.
Check Your Spelling. At a minimum,
be sure to use your word processor’s spell
check function! Although this won’t catch
all errors, it will catch many (for example,
spell check won’t notice the mistake if
your typo is an actual word, such as “mop”
instead of “map”).
2. Read it Out Loud. This is
probably the most important step for successful
proofreading. Hearing your document being read
out loud makes it easier to notice awkward sentences,
repetitive phrases, grammatical errors, typos
that weren’t caught by your word processing
program and other mistakes.
3. Take a Break. If time permits,
set your writing aside and revisit it later.
You’ll come back to the piece with fresh
eyes and a new point of view.
4. Print it Out. Next, print
out a hard copy of your writing and read it
again. Sometimes you’ll notice errors
“in print” that you didn’t
see on screen.
5. Ask for Help. Once you are
happy with your editing, ask someone who has
a good understanding of spelling, grammar and
punctuation to review the document for you.
Even after checking and double checking, it’s
easy to miss an error in your own work that
may be obvious to someone who is reading it
for the first time.
Whenever
you write something that’s not just “for
your eyes only,” be sure that thorough
proofreading and editing are integral parts
of your writing process.
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2007 Linda Marienhoff Coss |
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About Linda |
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Linda Coss is a freelance marketing writer who helps businesses become more profitable by writing persuasive, targeted and effective messages for their brochures, websites, letters, ads, fliers, press releases, newsletters and other written materials.
Whether you need something written "from scratch" or want a professional to edit what you've created, Linda is your on-call marketing writer.
For more information
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