We keep seeing really silly typos.
Like, really silly ones.
We’re too busy reading essays right now to go into detail but just let this serve as a warning: Spellcheck is not good enough!
In fact, it’s even worse than that, people. Listen up:
SPELLCHECK IS NOT YOUR FRIEND!
Even that is not fully the truth. It’s this:
SPELLCHECK WILL STEER YOU WRONG!
Spellcheck is like that guy at the bar that says right at closing “Hey let’s have another one it’ll be fine!” when you’re already so loaded you can’t see straight.
Spellcheck says, “Yeah dude I got your keys right here no prob bro!”
Spellcheck is bad, bad news. Don’t rely on spellcheck.
Maybe in the light of day, spellcheck can be a buddy who helps you out. In the panic of getting the damn app in before the clock ticks down, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
To do a good job with proofreading, you need to step away from the essays. You won’t see the mistake that’s been sitting right in front of your nose the whole time if you just keep reading and re-reading what you’ve already been reading. Take a break. Go do something else. Come back to it later, when you’re fresh.
Yeah, we know, there is no “later” this week.
But you need to have a mental reset before you go into proofreading-mode.
Proofreading is examining every single word — literally as it sits there — not what your brain thinks is in that position on the page.
There are so many errors that don’t seem to be errors to YOU, because you’re the one who wrote it in the first place. Your brain thinks it sees what it’s supposed to say. Yet that’s often not what is literally typed there.
In addition, many spellcheckers get spoofed — by you in a past life! If you inadvertently have added misspelled words to your computer’s dictionary, then guess what? Your spellcheck is actively betraying you!
There’s also options which might be configured into your spellcheck to actively thwart your efforts in finding misspellings. Specifically, there are options to ignore words in ALL CAPS or words with numbers and such. Well guess what? Your headings on your resume are probably written in ALL CAPS! What if there are typos lurking there???
Spellcheck is a preliminary step, but it is not going to save your hide when you have actual mistakes in your writing.
You need to make sure that you’ve written what you believe that you have! PROOFREAD, PEOPLE!
Tell us what you think.