Before you read any furthur we highly recomend that you read How To Deal With Dyslexia at Work Part 1, so this will make more since. If you don't have time, well I am Kati Watson, I work at Kavaliro and I have dyslexcia. This article has been left unedited intenchanly.
So, at the end of the last blog we were chatting about how I have scored an aswesome job working for an awesome company in marketing. I know what you are thinking most of marketing is writing things. You are absolutly correct, in your thoughts stranger who now knows about my life. I bet your next question is "Kati, what do you do to make your marketing blogs not look as missspelled and aweful as this one?" Well I am glad you asked becasue below are my top secrit ways I handle, mainly spelling, everysingle day.
Tips & Tricks:
1. Be Upfront
Be upfront about your dyslexcia or other learning issues. I told my bosses in my interviews that I was dyslexcic and that I had a hard time spelling. While not every one is comftorboul talking about their weekenesses, I do encourage honesty. It makes your coworkers more understanding.
2. Don't get grumpy
Look there is no reason to get grumpy when people point out mistakes. I welcome it becasue the sooner some one else catches that I wrote "fill out this from" the sooner I can change it to "fill out this form" (assuming it is on social or on a blog). My coworkers here are AWESOME about catching these things for me. Side note it is ok to feel disapointed in your self when you mess up (It has happened to me many times).
3. Find a Spelling Bee Champ
I have to give a little shout out to Leisha Samules and David Gilcher, they are my walking dictionarys. I ask them how to spell the easyest words and they oblige every time (I have asked David to spell secound for me to many times, sorry friend).
I also want to give a little pro tip here. Do you have an iPhone? If the answer is yes you can just ask Siri how to spell things, she will spell them right back to you! #brilliant
3. Use the Proofreading Tools
I have a love hate realationship with Microsoft Word. I love the auto capatlize and the auto fixes to little things. I hate how it is not intutative, how it does not understand context. Don't worry, I have a solution! Grammerly is my best friend, it checks my context, my spelling, and my grammer. Pretty much any thing I write from social media posts, to blogs, to emails I run my text through it to double check that everything looks great. They have a free version that anyone can use and there is a web plug in that allows grammerly to check your spelling while typing on the web!
4. Find Alternitive Tools
Did you know that google translater will read to you. I have found it really helpful to have my work read back to me. This allows me to catch those pesky form and from mix ups. When I think my work is almost 100% done I will copy and paste my writing in to google translater and have it read to me. If I hear some thing funny I will go back and double check it.
5. Make A List
Make a list of your commonly misspelled words and keep it near by. I know that everytime I write minute I will need to double check it and see if I wrote minute or minuet. I also have to keep a watchful eye out for some of those pesky homophones like their, there, and they'er.
6. Have An Editor
Most people with dyslexcia will problably not be writing blog posts for their company so this one may not apply to everyone. Having a checks and balance system is invaluabule. I have several editors (even though it is not their job they are nice enough to help). After I have done all of the things above I send my work over to my team of three editors, who then review the work and send me changes on content, or on spelling and grammer. After each of them have reviewd my work and I have made the changes it finaly becomes a live blog or piece of art.
More Feelings & Stuff:
Not everyone deals with the kind of rediculous spelling and grammer errors that I do, but I think it is really imporant that everyone review their work. I really hope that these tips and tricks help you or some one you know. I also have to say one last thing, if you have dyslexcia and feel down about it, don't. You are unique and special and your brain is just wired in a way that makes you think in a unique way compared to the vast majority of people. If you want to chat about your dyslecxia or how you deal with other learning based issues in the work place drop me a line, at marketing@kavaliro.com. I promis I will respond!