Don’t Press Send! How to avoid the embarrassment of writing spelling mistakes in emails.
Whether you are someone who frequently misspells words in emails or someone who has been caused some embarrassment because of a rogue spelling mistake, the typo can take place for anyone. If you Google “the worst typos in emails ever”, you will find a plethora of articles readily sharing mistakes that may seem funny at first but often spelling mistakes can be mortifying, especially within the workplace.
The reality is that if we need to communicate by email to important recipients, we want to make sure that we can be as accurate as possible with our spellings.
In this blog article, we shall present you with our top five tips on how to reduce the embarrassment of writing typos in emails, so that your emails can have the impact that they were written for.
Our Top Five Tips For Avoiding Typos In Emails.
1. Do not press ‘Send’!
This tip may seem odd given that to send an email you have to... yes, of course, send it. That said, so often the temptation to take a ‘point and shoot’ approach to writing emails is very strong, especially with time constraints and so emails get sent before they get properly checked, and then the sender has to deal with any mistakes they have made. It takes time to rectify and often leads to the need to write a second email to clarify or maybe to apologise for the mistakes. This approach can lead to lower levels of productivity and higher levels of embarrassment. This tip is really about checking the email first before you send it. Don’t just hit the send button. The rest of these five tips will give you ways to ensure that you can confidently send your emails.
2. If it is that important get a trusted colleague to check it before you send it.
A fresh pair of eyes is always useful if an email is important or has a high value attached to the impact of the email. It may only take a minute, but another pair of eyes might pick up on mistakes that your eyes may not have spotted. Sometimes our brains can convince us that there are no spelling issues especially when we are tired or if we experience challenges with dyslexia.
3. Utilise your spell checker.
Pretty much every person who uses a computer will have access to a spell checker. Often, they are included within word processing apps but as with all bits of software, there is no ‘silver bullet’ that works for everyone in the same way. We all have different preferences on how we want to check our work. At Aventido, we have been using two different types of spell-checking software that are called Lightkey and VeritySpell.
4. Read your email out loud first before you send it.
Sometimes the simplest way is the best. Simply read out the text that you have written out loud before you send it. It is a great way to find out when text does not read well.
5. Use text-to-speech to read out your email out and help with selecting the correct words.
Finally, an effective tool for combatting spelling and grammar problems is using text-to-speech technology to read out your text before you send it. There are many ‘screen readers’ available that can help with reading out the text on a screen. Text-to-speech technology is easily accessible and is a good mix of tips three and four in this list. Text-to-speech technology can effectively alert you to typos and it can also give the user options for words to use especially if they are confusing words or more commonly homophones, words that sound the same but have different meanings such as ‘where’ and ‘wear’ or ‘there’ and ‘their’.
In the video below, Mary from Aventido demonstrates the use of TextAid in combatting typos.
If you would like to know more about TextAid then do get in touch with our specialist Mary Wilcox by clicking the button below.
Antony Ruck
Antony has been part of the AT industry since 1999, working with manufacturers, publishers, standards organisations and service providers to deliver first class products and customer experience.
In addition to being the co-founder and CEO of Aventido Limited, he has also provided volunteer support for the British Standards Institute, co-created ATEC (the Assistive Technology Exhibition and Conference), been Chair of BATA, and is the first co-Chair of the newly formed DATEurope.
In 2015 Antony was elected Chair of BATA (the British Assistive Technology Association), a UK membership organisation for AT publishers and manufacturers, service providers, the Assessment community, Trainers, AT users, and Blue-Chip organisations. BATA campaigns for the rights and interests of those needing Assistive Technology, working in collaboration with Government departments such as the Cabinet Office, the Home Office, DfE and DWP.
During his tenure at BATA, and recognising the changing commercial and political landscape in Europe, Antony has worked with colleagues from the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy to found DATEurope – a new European association to represent the digital assistive technology industry.
Antony has presented on the advancement of assistive technology and the AT industry at events such as ATIA, BETT, ATEC, OneCPD, NNAC, ATF Switzerland, and The Workplace Health and Wellbeing Show.