"To be or to be"

Typos are, at the very least, embarrassing. At most--as Rogers found out--they can be very expensive.

If you've ever published the wrong telephone number in one of your ads, for example, you may not even know how much that cost you. (US retailer L.L. Bean knows all about that. It once published a back-to-school catalogue that invited readers to call 1-800--when it should have been 1-877. L.L. Bean paid big bucks to take over that 1-800 number from a Virginia company.) Sometimes, typos simply turn people off--and that can derail a planned purchase.

So what can you do to avoid those potentially costly mistakes? Here are a few pointers:

1. Get a second opinion. Get a second set of eyes to look over the document--try to find a pair that hasn't seen the text a dozen times already.
2. Let the text rest--overnight, if possible. Fresh eyes can almost be as good as a second pair.
3. If your text has website addresses or telephone numbers, physically check them. You never know.
4. For a regularly published document such as a newsletter, keep a checklist of things that change every issue such as date or volume number. Review the list last.
5. A person's name or title, a company name, a place name--these are all spelling disasters waiting to happen. Check and re-check.
6. Nothing is more frustrating to a consumer than a misstated price. Give that price list a second, critical look.
7. Where could a typo be the most embarrassing? In the headline, of course! If you have time to check only 10 words, make it these ones.
8. Last-minute additions to the text are magnets for errors. Be very careful.
9. Assuming your document isn't a tome, read every word--backwards. This technique helps you focus on individual word spellings.