Proofreading tips for error-proof copy

Follow these tips and root out embarrassing mistakes

Pick up any good novel and within one or two pages you’re likely to fall under the spell evoked by authors who are masters of their craft. Disbelief suspended, your mind can freely roam through the world that’s been carefully stitched and bound for your reading edification. In ways, this is not unlike the spell that all corporate publications should hope to evoke.

True, as a business communicator, you’ll rarely need to recreate Steinbeck’s dusty California exodus, but the copy under your jurisdiction should nonetheless cast its own spell of authority.

Your communication wizardry should be such that your messages flow from author to reader without obstruction, a feat achieved not only through precise writing and copyediting, but also through meticulous proofreading.

Just as it takes little more than a single typo to break a novel’s literary grip, the same, simple indiscretion can defrock a corporate publication of its respectability.

Bottom line: Your copy needs to be immaculate. How, then, do you put this ethos into practice?

Define the process