Page 85 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

74 TODAY’S BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

The Four “F” Words of Proofreading and Revising

F1: Format
In the first step of the four-step process, you should take a global view of
the document. Don’t jump right into proofreading for grammar errors.
First, you should ask yourself if the document “looks right,” because
in writing, just as in beauty pageants, looks matter. Determine if the
document has been formatted appropriately. Here are some questions you
can ask yourself as you look over the document.

Does the Document Meet Your Organization’s Standards?
The first thing you should determine is if you have formatted the docu-
ment to meet your organization’s standards. Some organizations provide
employees with templates and writing guides to ensure that messages have
a consistent look.

Do the key Ideas Jump Off the Page?

As we mentioned in Chapter 1, today’s working professionals are busy
and suffering from information overload. They do not read everything
that comes across their desks. They use selective perception to determine
what is important and they skim. So ask yourself. If someone were quickly
glancing at your document, would it pass the skim test? Can you quickly
identify the key ideas?
What can you do to make sure that your ideas do jump off the page?
Thankfully, we have a number of mechanical devices at our disposal to
help us format our documents in a way that makes the ideas jump off the
page. For example, we can write important ideas in bold, italic, under-
lined, or a combination of font styles. In addition, you can use one or
more of the following (but be careful not to overuse):

• Bulleted and enumerated lists
• Color
• Tables and figures
• ALL CAPS
• Headings and subheadings.