The importance of proofreading

Nobody’s perfect.

That we all make mistakes is no excuse for not trying to prevent them, or fixing them afterward. It’s certainly not a reason to go on the offensive and try to deny there was ever a mistake in the first place.

Own up, early and completely: most sane people will probably forgive you, because nobody’s perfect.

Hell, I regularly find errors in this blog, two or three years after publishing a post. And let’s not forget my debut novel, which I am now revising after getting the rights back last month. This thing was published four years ago and sold a couple thousand copies, and the gaffes I’m only spotting now have been seen by all those people.

That said, when you are offering any kind of public face, proofreading is a vital step that many people and businesses seem to miss.

They may not know any better. They may be cynically counting on a population’s advancing illiteracy and lackluster reasoning skills to conceal the problem. They may even excuse the error, with the idea that it makes them seem more approachable, down-to-earth, one of the masses…

Gene Wilder Blazing Saddles Quotes

But there are enough sharp eyeballs out there, that businesses need to be vigilant about their public facade. The best they face is a private personal correction…the worst is public mockery.

Take this restaurant sign.

ProofreadingThe business owners wrote up the ad copy, and none of them spotted a problem. They paid to have it made by a print shop, either local or online. Nobody there saw a problem, either.

Do you see the problem?

The food might be excellent. I’m going to try it out, to see. This is just a common typo, after all.

But a business or businessperson who misses or deliberately fudges some non-vital stages in their operations, may be missing more critical issues, too.

Today, it’s a turkey panini. Tomorrow, it may be nuclear launch codes or climate change responses.

2 Comments on "The importance of proofreading"


  1. This is one of my pet peeves. When I see things like this I’m apt to go into a rant about “I can’t believe that they paid for that” and “I can’t believe that they’re still displaying it with the error on it” and “I can’t believe nobody noticed”. My friends are probably sick of hearing me on the subject.

    We’re still laughing (occasionally) about the inter-university memo that gave notice of the dates for laying the landmines between the university radio station premises and our sister university’s campus. (Landlines! Landlines, guys. It’s OK.)

    Yes, today turkey panini, tomorrow who knows what?


    1. I never expected to bust out laughing at the word ‘landmines’. Thank you, I needed that. But I know college admin departments, and I can totally see them posting that. Nowadays, some wit would film a fake video of landmines going off on the premises, I’m sure…

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