As a business owner or solo professional, you have to write. Emails and letters, contracts, blog posts and articles, newsletters, checklists, how-to documents - the list goes on. If you've ever discovered an error (or had someone else point one out to you - that's fun) after you've hit send, publish or print, you know the frustration of going blind to your own typos.
According to Business Insider, the reason you stop seeing your own typing or grammatical errors is what psychologists call generalization, which is the process by which your brain sorts through information and grasps the meaning conveyed. Because you already know what you're trying to say, your efficient little brain just scans right through the words instead of looking at each one.
Thanks a lot, brain!
Here are three tips to help you prevent the embarrassment of typos in your documents and emails, and even on your website.
- Go back to it. If you have time, save and close the document and do something else. Don't come back to it for a day or two. You're basically making your brain forget what you've written so it will have to pay attention when you read it again. This kind of reset helps you spot mistakes you missed the first time around.
- Change it up. Don't have a day to reset? Changing the font to one you don't normally use can accomplish the same thing - by making the document look unfamiliar, you can trick your brain into paying attention.
- Borrow someone else's eyes. Send your document to a colleague or friend you trust for sense checking and proofreading. Just keep in mind that not everyone has this skill. For more important items like client contracts or your website, consider having a professional proofreader (or, ahem, a virtual assistant who is also a grammar nazi) review and suggest edits.
You can't always prevent typos, but with these tips, you can reduce them!