Page 38 - How to write effective business English your guide to excellent professional communication by Fiona Talbot

Quality matters 27

4 One cost to my company was in terms of seriously undermined
professional credibility (both in the short and long term).
5 I also paid a price in losing the publicity time-slot I had requested.
A later entry was not ideal for my business purpose.

Can you see how such an apparently low-key set of mistakes can
have a disastrous effect on the professional credibility of a com-
pany that’s operating internationally?
In the final analysis, although the mistakes were not mine, they
appeared to be mine. It was my company name and my details that
appeared... which leads me to the next section.

You can never fully outsource your

writing

What that last episode taught me was this: not to assume that be-
cause the version I sent for publishing was correct, the published
version would be correct too. The advertising company used Apple
Macs and did not just cut and paste my Word document: they re-
typed the copy themselves. Whether or not this was the case, I
should have asked to see the final proof before publication. Printers
often provide this as a matter of course, to cover themselves against
complaints at a later stage. But note that word ‘often’ – it’s not the
same as ‘always’!
If you outsource something and it goes wrong, the backlash be-
comes yours too. You can’t outsource responsibility!

Checking for mistakes

Let me reinforce the message: expect mistakes in your writing
draft. Here’s an analogy. When I was learning to drive, my teacher
gave me invaluable advice. I was told to imagine everyone on the
road was a maniac. That way, he explained, I would never be