Proof Your Work...Don't Make Your Life Harder!

I can’t tell you how shocked I’ve been by some of the emails and memos I’ve received from some of my Black coworkers. Throughout my career, I’ve received emails written entirely in lowercase or uppercase, without any punctuation, and containing many spelling errors. These emails weren’t always simply sent to me. Most times, there were many recipients on the email distribution list. And, it wasn’t just email. Memos and other documents were sometimes disseminated before they were ready for primetime.

I’ve always tried to caution Black workers about sending out anything that makes it appear that they are barely literate, unprofessional, don’t care about details, don’t know their job, don’t value their reputation, and/or don’t value the reputation of their employer or clients.

Always proof your work before passing it along to other staff! Here are some tips:

--Make sure you've used lowercase and uppercase letters, as appropriate. Don't write totally in lowercase or uppercase, which amounts to yelling.

--Make sure you've used punctuation.

--Spell check and grammar check your work. Use the spell check/grammar feature in your word processing package.

--Read your document from the end to the beginning. Reading out of order is a great way to catch errors like “their” for “there,” etc.

--If you receive work from other staff, do a quick edit/proof before you make your own changes to a file. Save the original version of the file you received and save your version, with your changes, in another file. That way you can always recreate what you received and what condition it was in, when you got it.

--Don’t assume the work you receive from other staff is correct or completely fulfills the requirements of the assignment. Do not assume that, because work was handed over to you by someone White, the work is accurate! Do a thorough review of any work you receive before passing it along to your superiors or other members of your team. You could be blamed for someone else's errors!

--If someone is lingering around your desk, while you are still proofing an assignment, either ask them to have a seat (and they can watch you check the work) or tell them you are reviewing it before handing it over and will let them know of any revisions or additions that they may need to make. Tell them you will get back to them. Do not rush, which will cause errors!

--This is important. If the work requires substantial changes and you’re dealing with a problem employee, don’t make the changes yourself unless you’ve been asked to do so. You should kick the assignment back to the individual who is responsible for getting it done. Simply include your recommended changes and/or questions and kick it back to them.

If you make changes to someone else’s work without talking to them about it, it can be seen as a sign of disrespect and a lack of faith in the person’s ability to perform their job. This can lead to all sorts of issues. Some people don’t want anyone to contribute to or change their work, particularly writing assignments.

Final thought, mark your changes with a pencil, not a red pen, which many people find offensive.