Why The Best Spell Check Happens Once You Hit Send

Here’s a fun fact: it’s not your fault you can’t spot your own spelling mistakes.

Well, I say “fun fact” but perhaps what I mean is “reassurance that I’m not completely useless at grammar”.

About three weeks ago I tasked myself to write everyday. It’s going well, I like it. However, I’m yet to post a single blog that doesn’t have at least one typo that I seem to have missed.

This isn’t new to me. In fact, I’ve been known to send emails with some stellar botch ups. Namely the time I got ‘morning’ wrong and the recipient instead received:

Moron, hope you’re well.

Or when I emailed a very senior director at work (Kate):

Hi mate,

I’ve even spelt my own name incorrectly, once signing off an email:

Thanks,

Firht

Name or otherwise, re-reading a sent email or published blog only to realise it’s peppered with a handful of mistakes is frustrating to put it lightly. It’s also confusing. How is it possible to miss blatant errors when you’ve checked the document numerous times?

Your brain is how.

Or more specifically, your brain working at a very high level is how.

I won’t try and do the science version of this where I start dropping words like lobe and cortex; I simply don’t know enough about that. However, having researched this a bit I think I’ve got a fairly good dinner table version.

When you’re writing something, your brain is functioning at a very complex level. More often than not, you’re writing something to convey meaning or to communicate a message. Before you’re able to sit down and start writing the words out that will do this, you’ve had to process the argument to the point where you know what you’re trying to say. In order to give the part of your brain the energy it requires to do all this, it downgrades the energy that would go into more tactical tasks – such as spelling.

For example, focussing on the preciseness of the words, the spelling, or their order are all things we are less inclined to pick up on because our brain is simply not firing to notice them.

You may write a word twice, or use two descriptive words in back to back sentences without registering that if someone were to read it out loud it would sound daft. Sometimes you may even miss out an entire paragraph that is crucial to your message – and for the life of you, you won’t notice.

You’re so focussed on getting the meaning across that you simply don’t see this stuff.

When I was at Art School I took an illustration minor. In this we did life drawing and portrait studies. One of the most useful techniques my tutor taught me was, when possible, draw upside down. He said that the moment you stop trying to draw what you think you should see and instead focus on raw and unrecognisable shapes, you manage to capture your subject far more accurately.

You also get a rush of blood to the head which doesn’t do much to combat the stereotype that all art tutors are high half the time.

But in principle, a similar trick works for writing. While there’s probably nothing more scrutinising than an Editor’s eye there are a few hacks for checking your own work. If you isolate each word so you move away from the meaning of the piece you’re more likely to spot the obvious mistakes. Reading sentences backwards can also be of use and if you’re on a screen inverting the black to white can make you see everything in a different light (get it?).

As for me, I’ve also been known to read work out loud in a posh British accent when I’m on the hunt for typos, as well as pronounce each word really slowly as if I’m a professional singer doing mouth exercises pre-show.

I’m not saying you’ll look cool, but it seems to help. And if it can save us from spelling our own names wrong on important emails, it’s probably worth a nudge.