Spell Check

You can use the red squiggly spell check errors in your documents to correct typos, or to improve your computer’s dictionary.

But you can use them as a flag. Something to call out confusing or esoteric language. After all, if spell check doesn’t understand some branded phrase or co-opted marketing term, then what’s to expect the reader will either?

We marketers love to geek out with inside baseball terms, and then wonder why we’re not always taken seriously or understood by our colleagues in the rest of the company.

So we’ve got two choices. We can try and look smart with big, complicated language, and then complain when our work is lost in translation. Or we can prioritize clarity and simplicity with our writing. Maybe it means a temporary ego-hit, but if you’re doing work that matters, isn’t being understood more important than looking smart?