‘Address In Last’
and Other Suggestions
No one is perfect, and anyone can make a mistake occasionally, but if you make mistakes frequently, or have a number of them in any one email, your reputation is likely to suffer.
five tips to help catch errors:
1. Read your message aloud.
If you read the words slowly, you will often hear any mistakes. Try it out on the italicized sentence above. Reading out loud also helps with the tone of your writing. If it sounds harsh to you, it will sound harsh to the reader.
2. Always look for error.
This means that when you are proofing your writing, keep looking until you find an error. And if you don’t find one, keep looking until you do – or until you are absolutely satisfied that there are none to find. It’s easy to miss an error unless you have a strategy for finding one.
3. Have someone else proof your writing.
It is easier for other people to catch your mistakes, as they read what you’ve written with fresh eyes.
4. Remember this acronym AIL.
AIL stands for Address In Last. Use this acronym to remind yourself not to send an email before you have finished writing and proofing the message. You can’t send an email without an address. Even when you are replying to a message, it’s a good precaution to delete the recipient’s name, and insert it only when you are sure the message is ready to be sent.
5. Double-check the spelling of the person’s name in the salutation.
Many people are offended when others misspell their names. The final thing to do before you hit “send” is to look at the recipient’s address. Often the person’s first and/or last name is in the address. You want the salutation to match the spelling in the address.