I love the emails I’ve gotten from development professionals sharing some of their follies. Here are a couple involving direct mail:
“Well, now I remember a time when I used the word ‘erotic’ when I meant ‘erratic.’ Luckily not in a situation when it could do any damage!”
Jenny Hansell
Executive Director
North East Community Center“Probably the worst I can remember was in a mailing, when I learned the word public does not show up on spell check if you leave out the ‘l.’”
Denise Marhoefer
Miracles of Hope Network
We’ve all been there, haven’t we? We work on a letter. Read it over. And over. Edit it again and again. Finally we mail it. Then, when we get our own copy in the mail and see mistakes like Jenny or Denise mention above!
Two things we can learn from this:
- Spell-check is not the same as proof-reading, and
- I’ve heard we’re “spoiled” after we’ve read a letter more than three times. After that, we need to get someone that hasn’t even seen the letter to read it.
If you’ve ever done this, isn’t it embarrassing how many mistakes you’ve missed?
