Correcting Colleagues’ Grammatical Errors

by Tiffany Aliano in Work, January 7, 2009

Some tips and suggestions on how to deliver constructive criticism to a colleague, as well as some helpful hints on how to help them avoid grammatical errors before submitting their work.

First of all being an editor is not an easy job. One of the more trying reasons is that you would have to critique your co-workers work. What suggestions can help improve their submissions? How can you deliver constructive criticism without one taking it to heart?

Obviously they were hired to write because they knew how, so they can’t be all that bad. But if I had to provide some useful guide lines they can follow to take some of the weight off their shoulders. The first thing I would suggest is to write there articles and such using a word program. Thank the heavens or who or whatever you thank for technology. Most word programs aid in grammar as well as punctuation.

Another tip I would suggest is to read there submission from bottom to top. The reason I say this is that our eyes are funny sometimes and if you keep reading the same thing over and over you can miss small mistakes. Such as misspelled words, missing words and etc.

So to recapitulate, being an editor can be hard at times especially since the job is based on correcting your peer’s grammatical mistakes. Not forgetting that they worked very hard on the article they submitted I would offer a genuine compliment. Followed by what they need to improve on, as well as how they can fix it; then of course ending the conversation with another sincere compliment.(Laurie Puhn J.D., 2005, p. 6) Sought of like “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in the most delightful way” (Travers & Stevenson, 1964)