Hi,

I have been working as an Admin. for over 8 years but still make silly mistakes. Send out email to team with an obvious grammatical/spell error 'XXX is our most our recent new joinee' or email HC report and later realise I missed one resignation count.

My current manager whom I have been working with for the last 4 years has always highlighted 'attention to details' as area of improvement at the last 3 year-end appraisals. I dont know what to do. Its very depressing that after all the hard work I do not seem to have made any improvement in this area.

Everything I read on/about Admin's I realise its one trait that makes a Admin a true support resource. I dont know what to do? Any one out there who has had a struggle in this area and made it? Pls. adv.

Thanks & Rgds,
SP

I struggle with this as well. There are a couple of things that I do. One is to fill in the to: field LAST! This way I am inclined to re-read the message and I can't accidentally hit send to early because the email program won't let me send without the to: field filled in.

I also sometimes send something to myself first, because of course you are more inclined to see it after it is sent rather than before (sigh)... Then I send it out to all as planned.

Basically it usually comes down to rushing too fast to do something. I have been known to put up checklists for things that I used to do regularly, right next to my computer (i.e. check times (including time zones), double check dates, day of week matches date given?, double check who is cc:'d, did I check spelling?, etc.).

Marie

I do the same thing too and it always seems its some stupid little error I should have caught!! I usually print out any document I'm working on, I seem to be able to see the mistakes on paper better than on the screen. Also, if its a really important document, I'll get one of the other girls in the office to proof it for me. Sometimes a different set of eyes helps.

Marie

One trick I've learned with e-mails is to type it in Word first. Then I can proof and edit to my heart's content. I also print out stuff when I need to proof read because I have never been able to focus on the screen well. Or maybe its just a comfort level thing where I'd simply rather have that piece of paper I can mark up when I come across an error. When its ready, I cut and paste into e-mail.

Some mistakes are inevitable because we are expected to do so much with short notice and right away. Try to slow down and make the time to check your work.

Also, just a thought, but have you tried charting your errors yourself? That way, you have something to show your progress or lack of progress from week to week, month to month. Take the tasks that you are making the most frequent errors in and track how many/how often those errors occur. If you actually see yourself improving, it will give you a boost and you'll have something definitive to show if its brought up again at your next appraisal.

Michelle

As this was (sometimes still is) a weakness of mine, I make sure I now check very carefully emails or letters I am sending out for such mistakes. I find if I read over what I have typed word for word rather than just what I know I wanted to say (if that makes sense) stray words show.

Nine times out of ten, I also type emails into Word initially and then cut and paste into the email - again, I never put a 'To' until I am at the point of sending in case I get button happy and send it before reading it properly. I think these errors occur for me anyway because I am in a rush to get something out and often think I would have noticed something wrong while I was typing it so it must be correct - usually it is not. In my case, I know I must proof read everything but this becomes a habit and really does not take long - it just becomes part of whatever I am working on.

I'd far rather take the time to read over work before sending than have my boss pick up on something that I should have spotted. I now find myself automatically proof reading a newspaper or magazine, for example, while I am reading an article and have found numerous errors while doing this! Taking things a little far there but as you see, it does become habit forming - a good habit tho I think.
Good luck.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Great to know that its workable. Will try the suggestion to keep track of the errors. All my emails are going to go into editing in Word and yes.. the TO: is going to be filled last.

Thanks to you wonderful Admin. stars.

Regards,
SP

One last thought--take a short proofreading skills course or seminar. Even if you don't feel you need it, you will be demonstrating to the higher-ups that you take their advice seriously enough that you're willing to commit to some additional training.

One further suggestion is to read the words out loud rather than just reading it to yourself. Researchers have found that you are more likely to notice errors doing it this way, something about having to actually read every word and not just skim over phrases.

Our rule of thumb, any e-mail that goes to more than 20 people should be proofread by at least 2 people before sending. Doesn't always help though, we had an event last week and the posters printed were proofread by 8 people. I walked in and found 3 errors amongst the 20 signs.

I have the same problem, though it doesn't happen often. It's the little things that tend to slip by as your workload increases. In fact, I made a small mistake on something and our President asked me to put a little blurb HE had written about "Attention to Detail" on our company newsletter...except he had three obvious spelling errors in the blurb.

Another interesting thing I learned today...we have a technical writer who comes to me for proofreading help. Our marketing manager wants to come to me for proofreading but the President said to take it all to the technical writer as apparently he believes (as he told the MM) that I'm not good at all at proofreading. So essentially, he'd like our major client contracts to go through her then me before being signed by clients, but our small blurbs on the web site, little postcards we send out, are too important for me to proofread. Unbelievable the double-standard people have.

I really struggle with this too. I have work arounds. I never type an email straight. Always into word then paste in. Adding the addressee last helps. I try to use the telephone or go and see someone in person. I have even had to typed this into word first!

I am severely dyslexic and have been taught coping strategies to enable me to do things.

For example if I really can’t spell a word I use another one.
When writing telephone numbers down, split it in to pairs of numbers. (Helps to prevent substitutions or reversals of numbers)
Never accept request from others for tasks while walking around the office, as it will have gone by the time I get back to my desk!
Where possible ask the guys to email me what they want me to do for them.

When taking telephone messages I always ask the chap to spell their names, unless it is obvious.

And the main one, is to only do one thing at a time, as I can be like a grasshopper, jumping from job to job to job and never coming back to the first one. (This isn’t such an issue now as my role has changed but when I was doing travel for the site is was a major issue.)

I also write everything I am asked to do down, in the same note book and read it back to who is asking me for the task. Just to check I have got it right in my head. And they have not changed their minds. (- Often happens)

Sometimes, others need be aware that not everyone finds it easy to be accurate all of the time.

As I do remember receiving a PM to a post I had put on Deskdemon (I think one of my first ever posts) sent by someone who was complying that the punctuation was incorrect and the grammar was wrong.

So even here in Deskdemon someone is checking up on you.

Anyway, you’re not alone, everyone has bad days some however have more than most! The harder I try to get it correct the more mistakes I make. Sometime I wonder if my hand and brain are connected at all!

So I apologise now if there any mistakes I haven’t spotted. Couldn’t there be spelling mistakes days?


Georgie Girl.