How message is prepared? Why proofreading in necessary for good written message?

PREPARING MESSAGE: After having completed the five steps of planning a message, it should be drafted on paper. A routine short communication may be written easily with little or no revising. But complex and longer letters and reports should be revised and edited properly before they are sent out.

First Draft: The first draft of message should be prepared by choosing proper words to express ideas, mistakes of grammar, punctuation and spelling should be ignored for the time being.

Revising and Editing: The draft should be read paragraph by paragraph, Sentence by sentence and word by word to check the continuity of ideas and grammatical, punctuation and spelling mistakes. While revising and editing the message it must be ensured that the message meets all the principles of good business communication.

Proof Reading: A careful proof reading is essential after the revised and edited message has been finally typewritten. Before it is mailed, it should be read by responsible and reliable person, because errors, if left un-corrected, may result in loss of goodwill sales, income and even lives. Proof reading for everything at once is hard to do. A better practice is to proof read separately for.

(i) Context: Does the statement mean what the writer meant to say? Does the message posses all the qualities of effective communication?

(ii) Accuracy: Is the language free from errors of spelling, punctuation, grammar, capitalization?

Are figures, diagrams and other marks accurate?

(iii) Form and Appearance: Is the layout correct? Does it look good? Proof reading may be done in different ways:

(a) Foreword reading.

(b) Backward reading.

(c) Asking another person to read.

(d) Reading with another person.