Does this sound familiar?
You’re rushing to meet a deadline, typing away and finally put the period at the end of the last sentence. You quickly review your copy and everything seems okay. Then you hit SEND or PRINT and distribute your latest masterpiece.
Only after others are able to read your work do you discover that it contains a terrible typo.
You’re not an idiot; you’re just guilty of no-red-line syndrome. That’s the false confidence you get when you hurriedly proof something and feel reassured by the fact that your spell check agrees that everything is ready to go.
Consider these two sentences:
- Great Manufacturing, Inc. will not be able to give bonuses this year.
- Great Manufacturing, Inc. will now be able to give bonuses this year.
- West Ashley is the site of the new hospital.
- West Ashley is the cite of the new hospital.
or
One letter changed. A world of difference in meaning.
It happens to all of us. Your fingers habitually finish typing words while your brain races ahead to complete a sentence. Since what is left on the page is a legitimate word, the only way you can find it is to set your copy aside and read it later out loud or to get someone else to look at it.
The same thing can happen when you are delivering a speech and your eyes are out of sync with your mouth. If you are closely following a script, your eye can read though when you need to say thought or you should say rather and what comes out of your mouth is other.
Writers and speakers all suffer from occasions when our brains are working at a different speed than our fingers or mouths.
One letter makes a seismic difference. What are some ways your fast-typing fingers get you in trouble?
Special Speeches 