Page 94 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

WhY MUST I REMEMBER ThE FOUR “F” WORDS? 83

spelling and grammar errors. As a rule of thumb, when the program iden-
tifies an error, you should at least check to see if you’ve actually made an
error. Don’t ignore the program. At the same time, don’t simply accept
whatever changes the program recommends. After all, these programs are
designed by programmers, not professional copy editors. As a result, these
programs occasionally identify nonexistent problems (i.e., cry wolf), fail
to identify real problems (i.e., miss the boat), and offer incorrect solutions
to real problems.
For example, our students commonly misspell the word “definite.”
We don’t know how they misspell the word, but we do know that word
processing programs will try to fix the error. When these programs try to
fix a spelling error, they use the letters provided by the writer to determine
what the writer intended to spell. When our students misspell “definite,”
word processing programs often suggest “defiant.” So instead of our stu-
dents writing that they will “definitely complete” their assignments, they
expose their revolutionary roots and tell us they will “defiantly complete”
their assignments. Word processing programs are amazing little tools, but
like all tools, we must engage our brain while using them, or suffer the
consequences.

get help

The best writers in the world have editors. If they have other people
proofread their work, then you should too. Of course, in business you will
find that occasionally your documents contain confidential information
and cannot be shared with a trusted editor. When that’s the case, apply
the following tips:

• Change the medium. It is often hard to identify our own
errors. We’re sure that a few mistakes will probably slip
through to the version of this book that you’re reading right
now. Sorry. One reason why it can be difficult to identify
our own errors is that we often try to proofread our docu-
ments on the same medium where we originally drafted it.
We proofread emails in our email programs, we proofread
letters in word processing programs, and we proofread slide