Spotting mistakes everywhere

Picture the scene... You’re sitting in a restaurant and waiting hungrily for the menu, excited to see what’s on it. A friendly waiter hands it over to you. With your stomach rumbling, you open the menu. All of a sudden, food is the last thing on your mind. You can’t see past all the spelling and grammar mistakes. Wait... Is that a translation error you can see?

Myriam Cavegn, Head of Language Officers & Copywriting

I know that pretty much of all my colleagues will have been in this situation before. And they would have had to resist the urge to whip out their red pen and scribble all over the menu. This kind of thing happens to me all the time. Not always in a restaurant, mind you. I could just as easily be reading a newspaper or browsing the Internet. Sometimes, I even find mistakes in books I’m supposed to be reading for pleasure. Even though I feel horrified, I secretly see it as a win for me! In an ideal world, I’d get straight to work on a full proofread!

Maintaining high standards

I’m well aware that this kind of behaviour can come across as annoying to other people. More often than not, I can’t help myself. I have no choice but to point out every little typo. I also find it quite distressing to spot a hyphen used in place of a dash. That kind of thing is hard for me to see past. I’ve been called a know-it-all in the past – I’m going to assume it was being used as a term of endearment. But, to be honest, it secretly makes me very happy when my good friend complains to me that she finds it hard to send me a text message. I take that as a compliment! Her problem is that she has to check and double check there are no mistakes before she hits send. I don’t see a problem with that as a firm believer that we should always take pride in our writing – not just when we’re at work.

Spreading language love

Another friend of mine, who never used to give spelling or grammar a second thought, now takes great care to write well without any mistakes slipping in. He has grasped that a carefully crafted e-mail is better received – nothing to do with the technology itself, of course. Although, wouldn’t it be great if badly written e-mails just went straight to the junk folder? Just an idea! Anyway, my friend has become a master of commas, despite having used them pretty randomly before to introduce pauses when they really weren’t needed. I played a part in this transformation by providing feedback whenever I happened to be looking over his shoulder when he was writing.

And I’m always happy to help my colleagues if they have any language-related questions or need me to cast my eye over something they’ve written. This often leads to interesting discussions. I even have to look things up sometimes, so I end up learning something new too. It doesn’t all come to me just like that, you know. But I really do enjoy it. And I love seeing other people getting excited about something I care so much about and have so much fun with.

Do you have a text ready for proofreading or editing? I’ll be happy to help you!

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Head of Customer Success

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