Social media and proofreading go hand-in-hand

Social media has blurred the lines between formal and informal communication. But this doesn’t mean you can forget about spelling and grammar in your tweets and blog posts. Of course, proofreading still matters.

The only way to guarantee that your web content or social media marketing is accurate and effective is to use a professional proofreader.

Our proofreading and editing course will turn you in to one.

After you have completed your online proofreading course, you will tell your friends and family off, for using a comma in the wrong place or forgetting to end a sentence with a period.

Here are some tips to avoid the common mistakes that can trip you up and damage your business’ reputation.

Spellcheck

Using a computer spellchecker isn’t 100%, but it will pick up spelling mistakes such as embarrased and accomodate. It will also find words with switched letters, such as perosnal, diffciult, and whcih.
Print it out

Never proofread on screen if you have the choice. Peopl e read differently on screen and it is much easier to spot mistakes, and to ensure consistency, when you check a printout.
Know your homophones

Homophones are words that sound the same, but are spelled differently. For example: affect and effect, where and wear, proceed and precede. For example, you don’t want say you are taking a brake from a bored meeting.
Look for missing words

When you’re checking something you’ve written yourself, your brain will, rather unhelpfully, show you what you think you’ve written, rather than what you’ve actually written. This even works when didn’t write the copy yourself (did you automatically read the word that’s missing?).
Beware one-i blindness

A common mistake is to drop the second i in words such as communities, utilities, facilities and difficulties. Does your hotel really offer ‘great conference facilites’? And are you sure you sell ‘affordable home insurance polices’?
Check confusable words

Just one letter can create a whole new meaning. Bought and brought, though and through; manager and manger, assess and asses …
Punctuate properly

Know your punctuation, and use it well. Did you know, for example, that an ellipsis is always three dots – no more, no less? Are you confident with the rules for using apostrophes?