White House Misspells President’s Name

In a news release issued yesterday, the White House stated that President “Barak” Obama signed an arms reduction treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

This certainly isn’t the first time our President’s first name – spelled “Barack” – has been misspelled. At the time of his inauguration, it was estimated that at least 60 million Internet pages had the name misspelled.

But the fact that the President’s own staff missed the error before sending the release to the media highlights how important proofreading is to maintaining an organization’s reputation. Errors in writing – or the lack thereof – make a statement about professionalism and credibility.

Of course errors happen from time to time. Writers, editors and proofreaders are human, after all. But making sure that all documents are edited and proofed is a good policy for any organization to follow.

Something tells me that the White House editors and proofers will give extra-close scrutiny to the documents leaving their hands in the days ahead.