Words to the Wise: How to Minimize (or Avoid) Typos

You’ve probably seen a typo in one of our articles or one of our emails. I’m human; I’ll admit it. (Though the woman who sent: “No offense, but do you actually even read your emails?” got herself promptly deleted from our newsletter list. Again: Only human.)

And though my staff can proofread, the timing of posts or emails doesn’t always allow for it.

I’ve considered hiring a copy editor, but we also don’t produce enough content to warrant a full-time position. And, when we do create content, it’s usually at haphazard times that don’t work well with a freelancer’s schedule.

Will we eventually bring on a copy editor? Probably. But until that becomes feasible, I need another option. In the meantime, I’m entrusting my content to…a website tool.

Now wait: Before you accuse me of supporting the commoditization of copy editing skills and suggesting that this work can be done perfectly by machines, let me clarify. Copy editing is a valuable skill that will never be replaced by computers or programs. If a site publishes a great deal of content; if a site is, say, The New York Times or even Buzzfeed, it will benefit from a copy editor.

But for the rest of us, those of us publishing content only periodically, or—even more likely—those of us writing copy or content for small companies or clients, we need another option. And the one I want to share with you is called Grammarly.

(Full disclosure, Grammarly is not paying me for this article. I just thought you should know about them.)

So, in a nutshell, here’s how it works: It scans your text for 250+ grammar rules and suggests changes. But it’s also not some sort of jacked up Spellcheck or Autocorrect—it offers “content-optimized” word suggestions.

You can use Grammarly for free as a Chrome extension, or you can purchase a subscription for Grammarly Premium to check 150+ more grammar rules.