I’m always amazed at the number of typos and grammatical errors I see when I read material online. I see them in blogs, on websites and in published articles.
I suppose, as someone who has been doing administrative work for a long time, its second nature for me to read, review and re-read anything I type. It’s called proofreading or proofing and tools like spellcheck make it even easier to review your work before you publish it for the world to see.
I firmly believe that what I publish online is representative of the quality of my work. As a professional Virtual Assistant, if I send something out with a bunch of errors how can I expect to be taken seriously by potential clients? In other words, if I’m not careful with my own work I probably won’t be careful with theirs.
Proofing and editing are important skills and should be practiced liberally. So take your time. Once it’s out there – it’s out there for all to see. Spell check your work – then human check it with your own eyes. Sometimes I’ve even had someone else take a look at my work to make sure I haven’t missed anything. Often if you’re too close to a project you can miss what’s obvious to someone else. So don’t publish until you believe your work is clean and error free. It’s worth the extra time and effort and it inspires confidence in you and what you have to say.
Becky Gregory is an Executive Virtual Assistant and the owner of Virtual Administrative Services (VAS)