Nobody likes to talk about spelling. We’ve all been made to feel like crap by school teachers because of our poor spelling. It sucks, but spelling really is important, because it reflects on you.

Facebook spelling fail.

You only have to think to all of the advertising, websites, CD sleeves, DVD covers — or anything else — you’ve seen that’s had a spelling error. Think about how you reacted to it. Chances are, even if you aren’t great at spelling, errors tend to stand out.

For example, here’s one CD cover with a major error:

Can you see it? If you can’t, carefully re-read the the subtitle Operation Metal Storm.

In anything like business websites or products, let alone marketing materials, spelling errors reflect poorly on your business. It makes you look like you didn’t care enough to go carefully over the materials. Often, errors creep through because you’ve seen the text too many times. Those of us who work with words know that, eventually, you read what you expect to read. Cold readers are the ones who will pick up your errors.

A good way of picking up your errors is to read your material out loud. Yes, you’ll feel like an idiot reading it to your computer, or your dog. Yes, it sounds weird. But it is vital.

Reading aloud forces you to slow down, to read what is actually there. It also has the benefit of helping you pick up grammatical problems that affect reading flow.

If you are really not keen to read aloud, there is one other thing you can do. That is, to read your material backwards, word by word. Use your finger on each word as you go backwards, and any errors will leap out at you.

Should you try any of these and they work for you, let me know!

Tags: copywriting, spelling
Filed under: Copywriting Resources