Don’t Depend on Spell Check

Reuters carried a story today about how employers look at resumes: Here is my job resumay

Spelling errors on a resume can kill a chance for a job.

"The resume is an applicant's first chance to impress the hiring manager," said Kathryn Bolt, president of Accountemps' Canadian operations. "Mistakes on one's application materials may prompt employers to assume there also will be mistakes made on the job."

This reminded me of a small piece I wrote for one of my journalism classes when I saw that my students were not fully looking over their work for spelling errors. I told them one of the best ways to find mistakes is to take the time to read their article out loud.

"The ear," I said, "can catch an error the eye might miss."

Plus, I added, don't trust spell check alone. Correctly spelled words in the wrong place are just as bad as misspelled words. The Reuters' piece offers the following:

Common mistakes include: "Dear Sir or Madman", "I'm attacking my resume for you to review", "Following is a grief overview of my skills" and "Have a keen eye for derail."

And I offer my own contribution:

When ewe right, ewe should remember two double Czech you’re spelling. Spell check will knot catch awl miss takes.

As eye sit hear in my office reeding articles, eye one dear how many thymes I have scene speeling errors that should have been avoided.

Spell check a loan does knot prevent mistakes.

Sum times using the grammar Czech helps too identify some miss takes.

Butt knot awl of them.

There is nothing like reeding a story out loud. When ewe reed sum thing and here it, ewe can often sea wear the mistakes our.