Look, I get it. You're busy. You're juggling ten things at once, trying to get that social post up before the day gets away from you, or firing off an email between meetings. We're all moving fast, and typos happen.
But they're happening a lot more lately. And not just the harmless kind.
I'm talking about the unfortunate "pubic meeting" instead of "public meeting." The "manger" instead of "manager." The "now hiring" sign that says you're looking for someone with "attention to detial." These aren't obscure grammar rules or stylistic decisions; they're just simple mistakes. The kind that makes people wince, screenshot, and share with their friends.
And the frustrating part? Most of the time, you're writing in a program that's actively trying to help you.
Word, Google Docs, email apps, design tools, pretty much everything you write in has spell check built in. That little red squiggly line under a word isn't there to judge you. It's there to save you from yourself.
One catch: spell check only works if you actually run it. "Pubic" won't get flagged if you meant "public" because "pubic" is correctly spelled. That's why you need to actively check, not just glance for red underlines.
So why aren't we using it?
I've written before about how we've lost that second pair of eyes—the editor, the proofreader, the designer who catches things. But honestly? Even if you're working solo, you're not alone. Your software is trying to help.
Maybe we're just in such a rush to hit "post" or "send" that we skip the last look. Frankly, I think we've also gotten more tolerant of typos. We see them everywhere, on professional websites, in ads, even in conference presentations posted online. It's not the end of the world, but it is sloppy. I recently saw someone share a PowerPoint deck from a conference they'd presented at. There was an obvious typo on one of the slides. That happens, and we've all been there. What got me wasn't the typo; it was that they didn't fix it before posting the deck online. You had a second chance, and you didn't take it.
Either way, the result is the same: avoidable mistakes that make you look less polished than you are.
Fixing this takes about five seconds.
On a Mac, you can find Spelling and Grammar under Edit > Spelling and Grammar. In Google Docs and Word, it's under Tools. Windows has the same options, but since I don't have a Windows machine, I can't tell you exactly where they are, though a quick search will get you there. Spell check is built into my design program, InDesign. There have been many times when I've taken an extra 30 seconds to run spell check, only to find a mistake the client made in their approved copy. Most times I don't tell them, and it saves them from embarrassment.
That's what this is really about, not being a perfectionist, just avoiding the avoidable. People notice typos. They might not say anything, but they notice. And when you're competing for attention, trust, and credibility with every post and email, the details matter.
You don't need to be perfect. But you do need to at least let your computer try to help you get there.
So next time, before you hit send, take the extra five seconds. Your reputation will thank you.
Author’s Note
This blog post had already been written and scheduled for publication when I came across this article by Sonja Anderson in Smithsonian Magazine. The headline of her article, “Typos Have Plagued Us for Centuries. Just Ask the Publishers Who Printed the Seventh Commandment as ‘Thou Shalt Commit Adultery’ in 1631,” says it all. Her article confirms that spelling has been a problem for us since we first learned to write.