Imagine this:
You are the CEO of a content creation company that has been in business for 18 years. You work with the best writers and editors in technology. You get to work with the most innovative companies around the world. And, just when you think things are going great, you get to host a webinar with the one and only Grammar Girl. Wow!
There you are, sitting at the top of your editorial world, just waiting for the webinar date. And as you wait, thousands (yes, literally thousands) of people register for the big event. Afterall, this is Grammar Girl we’re talking about!! To publicize the event, you send out various messages to your community. You include it in eNewsletters. You tweet about it. You blog about it. And, you decide to send an email to everyone you know.
Everything is going along just swimmingly. Your email goes out to several thousand additional people. You watch the “out of the office” messages come streaming into your inbox from all of your cohorts who are lucky enough to be taking the week off.
And then…
All of a sudden, you start getting other emails. Emails from people who are not very happy with you. These emails inform you that the message you distributed to thousands of people was literally riddled with typos and grammatical mistakes.
Oh yes, my friends, this happened to me just this past week. The email notification that the editing czar of the company (aka me) sent out was completely riddled with errors. What a helpless feeling! I stared at my screen and cringed. I think I turned red. I am sure I shrank in my chair. Just the sheer IRONY that this email was about a conversation with Grammar Girl made the situation a wee bit comical, but I digress.
There are a million things I could say. A million reasons and excuses that I could give you for why that particular version (unedited) of the email managed to get behind the “Click OK to Send” button. But, none of the reasons and excuses can suck that email back from your inbox.
So, what does one do in this situation? Well, there is only one thing I can do. I take full responsibility for the mistakes.
To all of the folks in my community who received this particular email, I apologize. I pride myself on my work and I am much better than that. I hope that you will register to attend the webinar and learn about proper grammar. I know that I’m looking forward to it for more reasons than one.
Hope to see you there!
Date: Friday, January 27
Time: 10:00AM
Val is on the Advisory Board for the Technical Communications Program at the University of North Texas. When not working with customers or students, Val can be found sitting behind her sewing machine working on her latest quilt. She also makes a mean hummus.
- Preparing Content for AI: 6 Reasons Why You’re Not Ready - August 29, 2024
- How to Be Inclusive in the Workplace: My Experience as a Hard of Hearing Person - August 12, 2024
- How to Improve AI Performance? Do This One Thing to Your Content - May 20, 2024
