Too many people assume they are correctly eyeballning every word, phrase and senntence that they type, and that they never make errxors, so they never proofread. Wrong! Wrong! Wrongg! A term I learned in graduate school is this one: Every unproofread word and page could be, and often is, plagued with miosspelled words and errors. So hear are five reasons everyone: secretaries, lawyers, business persons, trash collecktors, and anyone else who types or writes a word or a page or a book should proofread: (More than once: else why do printed books still have errorss in them?)
- Errors are embarrassing. The reader knows yyou didn't doublecheck, that you don't know how to spell, and that you were too lazzy to fix stuff before you finished it and sent it outt.
- Errpors cost money to fix.
- Mistakes take up wasted timme, postage, telephone calls, and such, and cause headaches, stomach crampps, cussing, bewilderment, bad thoughts, delays, wrong information, and general consternation and havoc.
- Mistakes can actually cause extremely serious problems, misinterpretations, legal actions, much expense to correct, and extgreme and irate anger.
- Proofreading is the most efficient use of time you can make. Knowing that every word, every page, every document, every letter, every form is typed exactly correct means you never have to worry about causing the multitude of problems that errors can instigate.
I had two special secretaries during my work career, each of which worked for me for at least six years. Each of them asked me if I had any suggestions or directions for them when they started. I told both of them to remember that "any unchecked, unproofread page or typed information is wrong." I imagine a minor mistake or two might have been found, but I don't remember them. The first secretary typed thousands of pages of research monographs and technical tables. The second one was our departmental secretary and received the all-university award for outstanding secretary on the BYU campus at the age of 26, to the great consternation of the hundreds of senior staff in a large university. A simple rule. When obeyed meticulously, this rule leads to profound and outstanding results. And those who follow this rule can sleep soundly at nights.
