I was busy emailing away and cc:ed my wife on one of many daily missives. Three hours later, I got an email pointing out my misuse of the word “Your.”

Yes, I typed “You’re,” when I should have said, “Your.”

(I’d have thought my wife would have forgiven me by now, but she may have other fish to fry and apparently this was the last straw.)

The email was minor, but I’ve seen $150,000 catalog printing projects come to me with typos on every page. Not minor.

Most people are smart enough to know better, they just start mentally skipping over their copy as they read-and-read-and-read it, over and over.

A simple solution that works: NEVER BE A FINAL PROOFREAD ON YOUR OWN COPY! (Hey! I used “your” correctly!)
Secondly, ALWAYS LET SOMEONE ELSE PROOFREAD IT, PREFERABLY 2 OTHERS, AND PREFERABLY SOMEONE NOT CONNECTED TO THE PROJECT.

(If you absolutely, positively have to proofread your own copy, try and wait a few days and let the dust clear. You’ll notice errors you didn’t notice when you were in the thick of it.)