Spelling and grammar mistakes? We all make them.

When I say “we,” I’m of course referring to advertisers, bloggers, publishers and content creators. But I’m especially talking to the writers out there—you know, the people who first bring those little words to life.

Oops. We was not paying attention.

The problem is, we sometimes publish our mistakes for everyone to see. Hubspot pointed out the spelling mistake on the political campaign app above produced for Mitt Romney. Dozens of people must have seen this dyslexic spelling of America during the production process, but perhaps just not a proofreader.

The tweet below was posted in response to the creative spelling of America in the app. If you’re not looking closely, you can still completely miss the error purposely duplicated in the hashtag.

Remember to excercise good proofing habits.

Well then, let me admit one of my own mistakes. (Sigh.)

At one of the first agencies I worked for, we misspelled the word exercise in a fitness equipment catalog—for a fitness client no less—typing in the extra “c” that obviously doesn’t belong. I say “we,” because it’s not always the writer who makes the mistake.

In this case, the designer incorrectly typed the word exercise into a logo. The mistake was caught and the logo (which had seven color variations and appeared on almost every spread) was updated. But this is where mistakes can still come back to haunt you. You see, since the files had already been sent to a third-party vendor, new files were sent.

Adding to a series of unfortunate events, the vendor then attached the wrong (original) art files when they were collected and sent off to the printer. During the press check, another individual and myself missed several more last chances to remedy the error and the incorrect logo made its way onto thousands of printed catalogs.

The client was not happy.

Quality checks are a part of eveything we do.

Here’s another example on a Reebok ad where everything is correct except “everything” (credit to bMedia for finding this one, and who rightfully suggests not trying to write copy in a New York minute).

Once a mistake makes it to press, it’s not just the embarrassment that must be lived down. The files need to be updated and put into production again, adding major costs that the client might not want to pay for. With digital work, fixing the problem may be less costly, but still takes time and added effort.

Lets weed out those mistakes...

What can you do to prevent errors from making it out the door, like missing apostrophes, for example? Start by implementing some of the following best practices:

1. Run spellcheck every time you close a document. (Yes, every time.)
2. Spellcheck doesn’t catch everything, so also proofread your work.
3. Make sure you haven’t made common mistakes like mixing up your/you’re, there/their, it’s/its or losing/loosing.
4. Ensure art directors and designers copy and paste content (instead of keying in copy directly).
5. Create a workflow that ensures edits are approved by the right people (editor, proofreader, subject matter expert, etc.).
6. Follow the workflow you’ve established.
7. Version your documents, keeping track of changes made in each round of edits.

So yeah, we all make mistakes. Just make sure you catch them before it’s too late.

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