Page 95 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

84 TODAY’S BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

presentations in the slide presentation software in which we
designed them. Good copy editors shake things up by chang-
ing the medium when they proofread. Remember Judith
Wenger Weir, the PR professional we discussed in Chapter 4?
She also told us about a lesson she learned about proofreading
from her boss, a former journalist. She said that she uses Mic-
rosoft Word to write documents. So she will print out a copy
and proofread the hard copy. She also proofreads PowerPoint
materials in Microsoft Word. Take it from people who write
6
for a living, if you want to catch your mistakes, change the
medium.
• Trick yourself. Another reason why we often miss our own
errors is that we don’t expect to see them. When you draft a
document, you think about what you want to write before
you actually write it down. How often does the version
in your mind have errors? Based on the ideas of selective
perception, if you don’t expect to see errors, you won’t. One
thing you can do to trick yourself and work against selective
perception is to proofread your documents from the last line
to the first. Start at the end and work to the beginning.
• Read aloud. Read your documents aloud. If something
doesn’t sound right, it probably isn’t.

Conclusion

Please remember that nobody is perfect. You want, however, to be the
best filter that you can be. By following this four “F” words approach,
you will catch many of the little mistakes that will affect your messages
and your reputation. If you use these simple tips, you won’t become
known as the person who asks people to drink dirty water.