Finessing your content with Sarah Brown

By Angela Bensemann, Director Halo Communications

Finessing your content is a critical step in producing professional copy. I talk to Sarah Brown from Foolproof about proofing and the importance of getting it right.

Q: When someone’s thinking about getting their document polished and finalised, what are the things they need to remember?

A: You want to produce the best possible document that you can. So, the main thing is to make sure that the content is as good, presentable and tidy as possible. And that means looking at everything because the stakes are high, you need to give it a really good review. Once you publish it’s too late and there’ll always be somebody out there who will spot a mistake. And not only will they tell you, they’ll tell their friends and they’ll tell their colleagues and if it’s a really bad mistake, it’ll be very embarrassing. So it’s just a really good idea to get a proofread before you go to print.

Q: So what are some of the clangers that you’ve seen over the years?

A: Oh, there’s been a few. There are of course the normal ones like public versus pubic. I found on one proofread that somebody was out to kill a rabbi rather than a rabbit. There are just a few things like that that spellcheck won’t pick up. And you know, the really really bad one is the difference between ‘now’ and ‘not’. So, you could say we’re now going to do something or we’re not going to do something. And if you miss it, it’s a pretty serious mistake.

Q: Can you proofread a document yourself? I know I can’t personally. But what what’s your view on that?

A: You can try but I really do think that proofreading is something that you’re either born to do or not. It’s not a skill that you can necessarily learn, it’s just a brain thing. And I think it’s in your best interests to use a professional proofreader. That’s not a guarantee that you’ll find everything because nobody’s perfect, but it’s an independent review. I’m someone who has never seen the document before and a professional proofread is just going to provide a really good look over and give you a good looking document that’s easier to read.

Proofreading is much more than just looking for spelling mistakes. It’s also looking for grammatical errors it’s looking for inconsistencies. You might spell co-operate with a hyphen, and you might then use it without a hyphen. So, then you’ve got some little niggling inconsistencies that are particularly annoying to pedants like me. I am also proactive in terms of just looking at if the document reads well, there are opportunities to turn a really awkward sentence around and change it and improve your document at the same time.

I never proofread my own work, it’s just not worth it. And even if you get colleagues to proofread a document for you, chances are they’ll be busy, they’re not skilled necessarily at doing it, they might miss things as well. It’s not expensive and it’s worth doing if it’s a document that you want people to really read it and enjoy it, because spelling mistakes can actually affect the whole reading experience and ultimately how they feel about a document.

Q: What would be the take-out you’d like people to remember?

A: Get a fresh pair of eyes. Preferably someone who has never seen the document before, preferably even someone not within your organization and allow the time to get it done properly too. Sometimes I get documents that are pretty weighty, and they go back with an awful lot of mistakes and corrections, so make sure you allow yourself some time in the process to do those corrections as well and get them right. Proofreading is often left to the very last minute and then squeezed tight.

Q: Thanks Sarah and if someone wants to get hold of you, what’s the best way?

A: You can call me on 027 44 22 200 or visit foolproof.co.nz