Are You Blind to Your Own Embarrassing Hiccups?
Film director David Cronenberg recently aired a warning to all budding scriptwriters:
“Most scriptwriters are illiterate – their grammar is non-existent and they can’t spell. If I’m distracted by spelling mistakes, I can’t get through a script, so I turn it down,” said Cronenberg, speaking on BBC’s Radio 4 on why he turns down film scripts.
As well as ruining any chances of potential stardom, not noticing or, worse, ignoring ongoing errors is bad for business. We’re talking errors on your website, in your blog posts, in your advertising, your press releases and other marketing communications. Sloppy copy confuses your reader … or makes them think you simply can’t be trusted to get things right.
That, in a nutshell, is why proofreaders are so important.
You see, when it comes to checking your own work, ‘blind spots’ get in the way. Oh, you think you know it like the back of your hand; after all, you’ve read the piece so many times, you are certain there aren’t any rogue typos, misspelled words or erroneous punctuation. Absolutely certain … well … maybe…
The thing is, your eyes can and will play tricks on you. They’ve scanned that piece of work so many times now, that they have simply become bored. So they begin to skip the details. Hence, errors stay put.
In my 14 years-plus of proofreading, there’s one surefire thing I have noticed: That it is fairly easy to spot errors in OTHER people’s work, but not so in your own.
What about you? Do you think we should bother with grammar and spelling? Please share your thoughts via the comments link below. I look forward to reading your views.
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