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What is the Four Eyes principle?

February 18th, 2020 by Jane Turner

Posted in Copyediting, Proofreading, Services | No Comments »

We at 33 South Textworks are great proponents of the Four Eyes Principle.

Have you ever been to a meeting or training course and seen typos or errors in the materials?  Did it make you stop and think, “Well, if they can’t spot typos, just how competent are they?” How about errors on a street sign or advertising banner?

It may seem petty, but small errors in your documents will bring down your reputation and erode audience trust.

If you haven’t heard of it, the Open Risk Manual gives a good (if somewhat long-winded) definition: “The Four Eyes Principle … requires that any activity … that involves Material Risk … must be controlled (reviewed, double checked) by a second individual that is independent and competent.”

We believe Four Eyes should be used for ALL important documents – after all, do you believe upholding your professional reputation to be a material risk?

This is your showcase document – your pitch, your ideas, your brain.

This is you. What you represent, what you stand for.

This is what you’re selling.

• Do you trust your use of language?
• Your punctuation?
• Is your grammar up to snuff?
• Have you checked for extra full stops, commas, transposed numbers?
• Does it make sense?
• Is it readable and engaging?

You wrote the document. Literally wrote the book. You spent hours on it.

Which means you’re used to seeing it – you know what it says, and chances are you’ll (completely inadvertently) overlook any imperfections – which WILL be noticed by your clients.

Don’t spend more of your precious time going over every line – get a professional! We’re experienced, know exactly what to look for, and can devote the time to it. After all, a document this important needs an independent review.

The goal is to provide consistent, concise, accurate, engaging and readable documentation.

I work with you, this is a collaboration. You know the subject, I know language.

GET IN TOUCH today to see how Four Eyes can help your business, and check out my Editorial Services to see if you need something a little stronger!