Autocorrect: The good, the bad, and the really ugly

The good news is we don?t have to think very much anymore.

The bad news is we don?t have to think very much anymore.

Computers, smart phones, tablets all think for us now. Scared yet? You should be.

Autocorrect is an amazing tool. All you have to do is start typing a familiar word and the electronic device you are holding in your hand decides which word you really want to use. Sometimes it works, sometimes . . .? not so much.

Sending a quick message to a friend is one thing, but when you rely on (or just never give a thought to) autocorrect in your business writing, it can get you into some very ugly situations. The key phrase there is ?never give a thought? to what the electronic device is doing to your words. You are happy to not have to worry about spelling or punctuation and merrily breeze through the message and then . . . you hit send.

And then . . . as the words whiz by on their way to cyberspace, you realize that ONE word is totally not what you intended it to be. In fact, it is so wrong you know you?ve probably just lost a client and possibly caused an international incident.

Okay, the typo might not be quite that bad, but at the very least it can be embarrassing and detrimental to the professional business image you?ve worked so hard to develop.

How to solve the problem? Think. Take the time to think about what you are writing and to think about whether the words that appear on the screen are the words you actually intend to transmit.

Read. Re-read. Proofread. Think . . . before you hit send.