Not everyone has strong diction and spelling skills. Unless you are going to have a copy editor look over everything that you do, it is advisable to all small business owners/managers that maintain a regularly updated website or blog to check your spelling and usage on your pages, product info, blogs, etc. Especially your main pages. It is pretty common and fairly acceptable for blog posts (especially if you are prolific) to have various spelling and grammar mistakes. Even still, there are easy ways to look up a word.
These days, browsers will underline words in forms that are misspelled. Even with that, you constantly come across websites with a treasure trove of misspelled words. There are always going to be a couple of things that you miss. I’ve even had copy editors miss words on large jobs. It is expected. But the more you have, the worse you look. Checking your spelling or looking up a word to verify usage is pretty easy these days. In any browser, go to google and in the search field type:
define: your_term
Obviously, replace ‘your_term’ with the word you are looking up. Google will diligently provide the definition. It is even simpler if you are using the Chrome browser. Here’s how I do it:
- Open a new tab using your keyboard commands – hold down Ctrl and hit the “T” key.
- Put your cursor in the address bar. I use another keyboard command, hold down Ctrl and hit the “L” key.
- Type define:your_term
Again, replacing your_term with the word you are going to look up.
This is also a great way to find and use words in your copy that are more descriptive than the ones you would naturally use.
Also, after you have finished writing, step away for an hour, or two, or a day. Then, com back re-read your copy. Fresh eyes will always pick up overlooked mistakes.
P.S. Any grammer issewes or mispelled werds in this post are completly intenshunal. 🙂
Creative Sarasota General Blog 