Why everyone needs a proofreader

I'm going to try not to rant.

I don't want to be a cliché. I have no desire to be a grumpy old man before my time.

But, as I was playing a board game the other day, I came across the following:

1. 'Name someone whose advise you would normally accept.'

2. 'Name something, apart from exersize...'

Perhaps we shouldn't get too wound up about this sort of thing. Perhaps it doesn't really matter.

Personally, though, I think we should, and I think it does matter.

For one thing, this was the type of game that gets played by people of all ages, children included.

A bit of dodgy typesetting is one thing, but 'exersize'?

Anyone who has tried to proofread will know that it's not nearly as easy as you might think.

But these weren't tricky grammatical points, nor were they errors buried in thousands of words of text. These were things that anyone with a basic education should get right or be able to pick up if someone else has made the mistake.

It's all too easy to cut spending on proofreading in an effort to balance the books. After all, nobody really notices the work of a good proofreader.

Bad proofreading, on the other hand, will get your company noticed for all the wrong reasons.