Comments on: Why Proofreading Should Matter to You

By: La Raine

La Raine — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:21:49 +0000

I'm adept at catching mistakes made by other writers, but unfortunately my own errors are often invisible to my eyes, no matter how closely I edit line by line.

At my last job I wrote an eight-page newsletter, which was proof-read by three or four staffers. At least that many errors went undetected. The final irony was that as soon as I read the published copy, the mistakes jumped off the page at me.

Go figure!

By: khaye

khaye — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:40:00 +0000

I have a sad story on how my work was edited way back in college. We then published a class magazine which was distributed in the entire school. It was too late when I realized that the editor (who happened to be my classmate) jumbled up my words creating unpardonable errors on tenses on the very first paragraph of my article which ruined my entire story ( it was supposedly written to narrate how life WAS like in that small town I featured). I think it pays to read your work again after your editor has done his job.

This is a thought-provoking post. You are always good in squeezing our juices.

I have left something for you over my blog. It's something special. :)

By: Katharine Swan

Katharine Swan — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:31:00 +0000

Just dropping by this post one more time to tag you. I've started following your blog on a daily basis and I'm so glad I have, which is why I chose you for this. :o)

By: Ryan (LWM)

Ryan (LWM) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:13:00 +0000

Oh my. Do NOT get me started on this one. I had to actually start a blog about things like this because I couldn’t take it any more.

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:36:00 +0000

LOL! Sal, that’s a great story!

By: Ruthibelle

Ruthibelle — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:36:00 +0000

I agree. We all need to proof-read and then have our work proof-read by someone else, or several someone-else’s. Cause one glaring grammatical error in a book does it for me too.. it just takes the book’s standards down by, like five notches in one go!

By: Sal

Sal — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:15:00 +0000

Your pre-caffeinated state...LOL, that is why I made a rule at my work that absolutely NO emails are to be sent before the 2nd cup of coffee.

I usually proofread line-by-line unless I am in a hurry to get something posted. I have never had an error appear in actual print, other than my only printed short story which was an error on purpose. The short story was a giant run-on sentence that was a page long. It won my school $1,000 for the writing department. The committee probably felt sorry that the students from my school did not know how to effectively use punctuation. Go figure.

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:06:00 +0000

Exactly, Katharine. This is a less formal medium (and much easier to edit). If it's in print, it needs to be checked out more thoroughly.

Carrie, I'm sorry I missed you, too. :)) I hope you had a nice break from the snow! Ours is almost all melted already! Hard to believe we were freezing our teeth off last week.

By: Katharine Swan

Katharine Swan — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:23:00 +0000

Lori, mistakes like that really irk me too. When I come across a mistake in a book, I usually screech and start bouncing up and down in my chair, then insist that my husband look at whatever mistake I found. I’m sure he thinks I’m slightly nuts. Thankfully he married me anyway. :o)

I’m much more likely to overlook the occasional mistake in blogs and emails, and admittedly I don’t proofread my blog posts very often — but in professionally published books there is simply no excuse.

By: Carrie Wilson Link

Carrie Wilson Link — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:37:00 +0000

Several things pop out:

1) Love short, snappy, get to it memoirs. (And of course I'd like to think mine is all three.)

2) Couldn't agree more that proofreading is critical, and when people can't get then/than straight, I need read no further.

3) Sorry again that I was so close, and yet so far. But you're right about the weather - GORGEOUS!