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People will judge you by your writing. Thus, the first goal of your writing should be accuracy. To make a good impression on readers, a report must be error-free—free of arithmetical, grammatical, and typographical mistakes, however minor they may be…. [W]riters often look over their final drafts hastily or not at all. The price of carelessness can be quite high. Incorrectly typed numbers, percentages that do not add up, misspelled words, and other minor errors are usually major distractions to readers. A. Parasuraman, D. Grewal, and R. Krishnan (2007), Marketing Research, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, p. 531. Spell-checking is not proofreading. Spell-checking may guide you to easy-to-detect errors, such as a misspelled word. The spell-checker does not know which word you intended, (e.g., form or from, indicated or indicted). It cannot detect an incorrectly used word (e.g., predicated or precipitated). Do not spin the results of your research. Accurate reporting means an objective presentation–not as the client expected or wished it could be. Technical reports serve as the basis for decisions, and the reader must be assured of the lack of bias. It is better to be disappointed than to be misled. |
Proofread your writing carefully! Your client will notice any errors you overlook. Commonly misused words:
Commonly misspelled words: |