Professionalism is important ALL the time!

I am noticing with all the posts, blogs and websites I am viewing, that there are many, many spelling mistakes or other fixable errors that distract the reader when viewing the site or written message. And believe me, I have spotted one of my own, because I pushed the return button before I proofed what I had typed. And since I am planning to help people on this subject, I gasped when I saw my error! How can I convince others if I am not correcting my own.

I started working at a newspaper and became a compositor in the back - typing articles, obits, classified ads and of course building advertisements for clients of the Newspaper. I quickly learned when I first started that I needed to learn how to spell so I didn't need to open a dictionary every 5 minutes. So I just told myself, remember the words as I learned them. And it worked! I became a pretty good speller. And I became very good at spotting errors whether they were spelling or not.

But regardless, I also learned over the years that no matter how many times you looked at the work you did, the amount of times the salesman looked at the work he ordered for the client, and the few times the client proofed the ad, mistakes still happen. The advertisement was published and then one of us spots the error as we read the newspaper.

It was the nature of the work and not enough time to get the newspaper together before it went to print. And it goes without saying clients were angry, withdrew their advertising and you as the compositor was to blame even though numerous people proofed the ad.

So, although I am a brand new blogger here and a new premium member with a 'just starting out' website, I urge everyone to work professionally all the time. When you send a post to another member, ask a question, write a blog or work on your website always strive to check your work before you hit the return or publish what you wrote.

It might not catch every error but it will help in a big way at improving how people view your work and whether you are going to succeed in this business. If you have a problem spelling, start using your dictionary. Load a dictionary onto your computer and use it regularly. And when you learn how to spell the word, take the time to remember it so that it will be one less word to look up next time. If you train yourself to do this you will quickly become accomplished at spelling. And you will be heading in the right direction towards Professionalism.