Everyone makes Misateks....Mistakes

After the initial feeling of being chuffed with myself fordressing appropriately and professionally I was thrown into the world of PR by being given the task of writing and sending a number of press releases to the local media informing them of my organisation’s upcoming awards night and the organizations which were named as finalists in the respective news proprietors’ area. 

Originally this task seemed to be right up my alley-a PR practitioner’s bread and butter. Easy right? I had done plenty of these in classes and for exams. I thought I was a regular PR whiz when I had completed over 25 media releases. I was savvy enough to remember I should proof read and double check all of my works before I eagerly go rushing up to my supervisor seeking approval like a small child asking their mother to watch them dive into a swimming pool.

I was disapointed to disocver that my work reveald some sily errors.  In the excitement of trying to complete the task quickly I neglected some basic writing fundamentals. It is only human however to miss errors – for instance, in the rush of reading this post how many of you noticed the spelling errors in the first sentence of this paragraph?  

The importance of paying attention to detail and checking, double checking or even triple checking your work should be held in the highest regard in the professional world.  My spelling and grammar was not the only thing that needed to be analysed with a fine tooth comb. The names, addresses and titles of the journalists or editors I was sending my releases to needed to be correct (a couple of my submissions did not originally reach their intended media outlet because the journalist I sent them to no longer worked at the business) 

I am also creating the audio visual presentation for the awards night which is fast approaching and needed to make sure names of the finalists and winners are correct, the timing of the slides run exactly to the minute of the event plan and the names of the finalists are written both in a traditional and phonetic fashion so as to avoid embarrassing verbal errors by the master of ceremonies. 

What originally seemed an excessively anal approach to fact checking and ‘pointless details’, has proven to be a vital necessity in ensuring the running of the organization and the upcoming awards night is a success. I realize that everything may not be as easy as it first appears.  Should there be mistakes or disasters the first question that needs to be asked is “could this have been avoided by fact checking or creating a precautionary plan?” Never again will I think things parades, expos, ceremonies or any event can just be ‘thrown together’. Painstaking attention to detail can go into the smallest of things.