Tips Tuesday – 5 Ways to Check Written Web Content

A Few Ways to Check Written Content

I read a lot of words, both online as well as printed, and I spot more spelling and grammar mistakes on the web, which is crazy really as it’s so easy to amend online content if a mistake has been made.

Of course it’s better to avoid these mistakes in the first place, so I thought I’d list five ways to check written web content BEFORE it’s published. Although they work just as well after publishing too!

Five Ways to Check Written Web Content

1. Read written words out loud – v e r y   s l o w l y – This might sound like a mad idea if you haven’t tried it, but it really is effective. If the words you’ve written don’t make sense when you read them aloud, then they’ll confuse your readers. This method is a really good one for spotting missing words. Sentences that look OK can easily have a word missing or the wrong word used and saying it out loud makes it more obvious.The key to making this technique work is to read every word deliberately and slowly.

   Alternatively use a text to speech facility on your computer, which reads out the words you’ve written – amazing how easily you can spot mistakes this way.

2. Read written content backwards. This method helps to spot spelling mistakes and when the wrong word has been used. Look out for common misspellings such as:
   • Necessary or neccesary – there should be 2 ‘S’s, think Sugar and Spice is necessary (and amusingly, my word processor keeps correcting the wrongly spelt one!)
   • Recommend or reccommend – only 1 C in this one.

   And learn which spelling to use for common words such as:

   • To   Too   Two
   • There   They’re   Their
   • Whether   Wether   Weather

   There’s more information about homophones (words which sound the same but have different spellings) from Nikki Cooke of The Word Well who listed 10 spelling blunders to avoid.

   This technique also helps you to spot fro when you meant for and form when you meant from.

3. Keep a Checklist. Most of us have a few words we regularly spell incorrectly or use in the wrong way. Keep a note of them and always double check when you’ve used these words.
4. Run a Spell Check. Do run a spell check. If you’re typing directly into a website with no spellcheck facility, then copy your text into a word processor and look for mistakes before you publish live in the web – and another thing about spell check, make sure it checks in the correct language. There is a difference between US and UK, but also if your word processor is set for another language (not English) then many English misspellings will not be picked up.Both these might sound obvious –but clearly many people don’t do it.
5. Ask for Help. Ask someone else to read it for you. This could be a person reading it from paper or screen – or even a trained proof-reader (like me!). Amazing how different something sounds outside our own heads.

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