Business Writing With Buzz

What’s the worst typo sin you’ve committed?

You’re not alone...making mistakes comes naturally to humans, so it’s not surprising that websites and marketing materials are littered with typos.

Sadly, typos cost money. Research in the UK shows that typos cost businesses there millions each year. People don’t want to do business with companies that can’t get their name right, or make mistakes in their emails, letters or brochures.

One of the worst culprits are call centres, where operators often take down the wrong details. It’s a blessing we haven’t had to ring the US call centre that had a 35% error rate in orders it took over the phone. Classics were:

The name Whithead typed in as -hithead (I'll leave you to fill in the gap).

The gift greeting With Our Love typed as With Out Love.

And these were the ones that were caught before they were sent to customers. Imagine what was missed!

Our own big companies are just as susceptible. When proofreading an annual report for a major bank, I spotted a mistake on the inside cover of the report. And this was on the day that the cover was going to print. The mistake?

Shareholders were to receive divideds, not dividends. 

It's easy to find others' mistakes, but not our own. This is why I recommend you don't proofread your own work. Here’s some ways you can avoid typo sins.

1. Read each sentence aloud. You’ll hear your mistakes.

2. Look at each word in isolation. If you have time, start at the end of the document and read each word in turn, from the last to the first. This way, you’re more likely to spot typos.

3. Watch out for the old favourites. We often repeat the same mistakes:

Missing narrow letters (e.g. ‘i’ - offical, opportunites, instnctively)
Using extra letters  (e.g. acccountancy, narrrow)
Misspelling long or technical words (e.g. physiothearapy, implenemtation).

4. Spell checkers won’t pick up typos which are correct spellings, or words that sound the same but have different meanings. For example:

causal/casual
form/from
unclear/nuclear
their/there
site/sight.

5. Double check all the headings and page numbers and that indexes match the page numbers. This is where most mistakes are made, especially in long documents such as annual reports, proposals and tenders.