Voice recognition software is a big plus for those who have limited typing skills, or who simply do better speaking than writing. But if you use it, take time to proofread. If you don’t, you could end up looking silly.
That software simply doesn’t know what you mean – and the fact is that no one enunciates perfectly all the time, so mistakes are common. Have you ever watched TV on mute, so you had to read what people are saying? Sometimes the words that go across the screen can make you laugh out loud – even when the subject is serious.
I’ve seen numerous blogs with silly mistakes, such as:
- heels for heals (Time heels all wounds? or The heal fell off my shoe?)
- reigns for reins (He let his partner take the reigns?)
- perspective for prospective (Does anyone have a perspect to see today?)
- waist for waste (That was sure a waist of time?)
And speaking of “sure”… I just had a discussion tonight with someone who said spelling “sure” without an “h” was silly, because we pronounce it “shure.” He always writes it that way, and since I’m his proofreader, I always correct it.
And then of course, there are those instances of there for their, your for you’re, hear for here, to for two, etc.
Whatever the reason, those errors make you look bad. If nothing else, they make it appear that you don’t pay attention to details – and if you’re helping someone with one of the largest financial transactions of their life, they want to know that you DO pay attention to details!
You’re a professional – make sure you look the part in writing by making sure to proofread.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! As someone who worked in a past job as a recruiter, any resume that ever passed my desk ended up in the garbage if it contained any of the above errors. I know that today acronyms such as “U2” and BTW seem to have replaced proper English, IMHO even “thru vs through” is just WRONG. Glad there are still a a few of us out there who believe in putting our best foot forward following proper protocol, even if many of the folks doing the reading of what we’ve written don’t seem to notice or care.