Proofreading

Give power to your message

Good evening, everyone!

When you speak, your words are fleeting. Therefore, you can get away with grammar mistakes because your listeners will forget the details of your sentence structures in a flash. Only the gist of your words remains in their memories.

Conversely, when you communicate through writing, your words can last forever. Readers around the globe can repeatedly read and revisit your weakened message, so proofreading is essential.

Proofreading strengthens your message and opens up opportunities

There are three aspects of proofreading I'd like to cover today:

• Spelling.

• Grammar.

• Clarity.

Let's check a real-world example from a company called Skip and see how they did.

A marketing post on LinkedIn from a company called Skip.

Skip did an excellent spelling job; however, they must correct several grammar errors in their post. Additionally, their marketing message is wordy and cluttered with meaningless information.

Let's fix their marketing for them, starting with the grammar. I'll put our changes in bold.

High's may have roots dating back nearly 100 years, but today they're demonstrating what is possible with the latest retail technology. According to Brad Chivington, self-checkout adoption has been strong, with 35% of transactions being captured.

"You can read more from Global Convenience Store Focus on all the exciting things happening at High's.

Here are the grammar issues we fixed:

• Skip should have included an is between what and possible in their first sentence.

• The second sentence should have had a comma between strong and with.

• The last paragraph was a sentence fragment.

Bring your message into focus

Even though we have verified the spelling and corrected all the grammar mistakes, Skip's message is still muddled, so let's clarify it.

High's may have started their business a hundred years ago, but their stores now showcase Skip's cutting-edge retail technology.

You can read more about the exciting things happening at High's convenience stores at Global Convenience Store Focus, the media platform for senior retail executives.

There, that's better. See how much stronger the message is now? Proofreading your work and focusing on spelling, grammar, and clarity will significantly strengthen your message and get you the desired results.

So here is everything we fixed for clarity:

• We clarified the first sentence by getting rid of worthless information. The point of the first sentence is to establish High's longevity and to highlight Skip's retail technology. The rest of the sentence is meaningless fluff.

• We wrote the number 100 out because numbers tend to stand out and draw readers' eyes to them, which can be distracting.

• We added the missing callouts to Skip's company.

• We removed the tangential second sentence.

• We eliminated the passive voice in the post.

• We changed the wording to eliminate its awkwardness.

• Finally, in the last paragraph, we identified what Global Convenience Store Focus is for our readers, so they understand the message better.

While proofreading, you should fix your spelling and grammar and cut, cut, cut! By cutting everything from your writing that distracts readers from your main points, you'll avoid confusion and other ideas competing with your main topic.

In Skip's original message, they failed to mention their own company, which is the entire point of marketing. They also threw Brad Chivington and Global Convenience Store Focus into their word jumble without telling readers who they are. As a result, Skip's original post confuses readers. It also creates a focal competition between Skip, Brad, and High's customer shopping habits. Our improved message eliminates the cruft and may get readers interested in Skip.

The challenge

There are many ways we could have fixed Skip's message. For example, we could have used different words or cut out the part about High's being one hundred years old. The important thing is that we write to the point and eliminate the fluff. Our message has power when we do this.

For today's challenge, why don't you take a stab at editing Skip's marketing message and sharing your result in the comments? Who knows? Maybe Skip will hire you.