Presentation on proofreading, including tips and common errors

1. PRACTICAL
PROOFREADING
GLENN GILLEN, APR

5. HOW WE GOT HERE
 Texting, casual language
 Change in teaching emphasis
 Fewer proofreaders
 In a rush
 Reliance on spell check
 Decline of print journalism

6. WHY IT MATTERS
 Makes you look unprofessional
 Message won’t be taken seriously
 Editors looking for reasons to dismiss your
communication
 Can change meaning of your sentences
 Fewer filters

7. OBJECTIVES
 Communicate effectively
 Ensure comprehension
 Eliminate confusion
 Provide accurate information
 Be consistent

8. THE BOTTOM LINE
 Spelling and grammar mistakes costing
e-commerce sites millions of dollars
 Six seconds to capture attention on website
 Revenue doubled per visitor once error
corrected
 Comma costs company $2.6 million
 “ … shall continue in force for a period of five
years from the date it is made, and thereafter for
successive five year terms, unless and until
terminated by one year prior notice in writing by
either party.”

11. FOUR QUESTIONS
 When do you need it?
 Who is the audience?
 Which style guide?
 What are the exceptions?
 The right way
 The boss’ way
 The client’s way

12. FOUR PASSES
 Format
 Comprehension
 Grammar and punctuation
 Spelling

13. BEST PRACTICES
 Proofread all drafts, all stages
 Let someone else proof
 “Overnight test”
 Proofread final design/proof

14. BEST PRACTICES
 Edit from hard copy
 “Reading from paper versus screens: a
critical review of the empirical literature”
by Andrew Dillon, 1992
 “ … experiments by Creed et al (1987)
and Wilkinson and Robinshaw (1987)
report significantly poorer accuracy for
such proofreading tasks on screens.”

15. BEST PRACTICES
 Use straight edge as visual guide
 One line at a time
 Solid straight edge
 Use different color pen to mark
 Make placeholder marks in margins

18. WHAT TO DOUBLE-CHECK
 Names (people, companies)
 Titles
 Places
 Dates (time, day, month, year)
 Figures
 Websites, email addresses

19. SPELL CHECK WON’T CATCH…
 Homonyms
 Incorrectly divided words
 Incorrect pronouns
 Missing words
 Wrong words
 Incorrect verb tenses
 Repetition of phrases/sentences

20. SERIAL COMMA
 Strict grammarians add last comma
 Red, white, and blue
 AP Style Guide usually omits
 Red, white and blue
 Add final comma for long lists of complex
items
 Add final comma if listed items include
“and”

21. COLON (:)
 Most common use is to introduce lists
 “ … his favorite colors: red, white and
blue.”
 Not “ … favorite colors such as: red,
white and blue.”
 Can also be used for emphasis
 “He only had one hobby: eating.”

22. SEMICOLON (;)
 Greater separation than a comma but
less than a period
 Separate long items in a series or when
items contain multiple segments
separated by commas
 Link independent clauses (e.g., “The
package was due last week; it arrived
today.”)

23. HYPHEN (-) VS. DASH (─)
 Hyphens join words
 Avoid ambiguity
 Form a single idea from two or more words
 Dashes
 Abrupt change (e.g., “I will stay – if it rains.”
 Series within a phrase (e.g., “His favorite
colors – red, white and blue – were on
display.”
 Attribution (e.g. “Nietzsche is dead.” – God)

24. ELLIPSIS (…)
 Denotes deletion of one or more words
in condensing text
 Leave blank space on both sides
 If at end of a sentence, add a period
 “… then went to bed … .”

25. CAPITALIZATION
 AP Style
 Directly before name is title, capitalize
 After name is position, don’t capitalize
 Senator Richard Burr
 Richard Burr, senator from North
Carolina

26. POSSESSIVES
 AP Style
 Singular common noun, add apostrophe
and letter “s”
 Noun ends in “s,” add apostrophe only
(e.g., boss’, waitress’)
 Same rules apply for proper nouns
(e.g., Tom’s, Jones’)
 Plural noun ending in “s,” add apostrophe
 Plural noun not ending in “s,” add
apostrophe and “s”

27. POSSESSIVES
 Possession applies to two singular
nouns, apply apostrophe and “s” to
second noun
 Tom and Jane’s car
 Two distinct nouns, apply appropriate
possessive for each noun
 Tom’s red car and Jane’s blue car

28. POSSESSIVES
 Chicago Manual of Style
 No exceptions for singular nouns, always
add apostrophe and “s” (e.g., boss’s,
waitress’s)
 All plural nouns treated the same as AP
Style
 Proper names ending in s, x or z, add
“es” and apostrophe (the Thomases’
house)

29. PLURALS AND APOSTROPHES
 Lowercase letters (p’s and q’s)
 Not always needed for uppercase (four
As and two Bs) but doesn’t hurt
 Not needed for numerals (4s, 8s)
 Not needed for years (the 1990s) but
okay in truncating (the ’90s)

32. REPEAT OFFENDERS
 Companies are an “it,” not a “they”
 “Whom” vs. “that”
 “that” introduces restrictive clause,
essential (e.g., “He dreamed of cars that
could fly.”)
 “which” introduces non-restrictive,
parenthetical clauses (e.g., “He dreamed
of cars, which is not unheard of.”)

33. REPEAT OFFENDERS
 Postal abbreviations vs. state
abbreviations (MI vs. Mich.)
 “over” vs. “more than”
 No end quotation marks
 Change in tenses, “said” and “says” in
same document
 “Fewer” vs. “less”

34. COMPOUND MODIFIERS
 Hyphenate compound modifiers directly
preceding a noun (e.g., 80-proof liquor)
 Don’t hyphenate after the noun (e.g., the
liquor was 80 proof)
 Some guides and publications moving
away from hyphens, use only if omission
causes confusion

35. COMPOUND MODIFIERS
 General guidelines
 Don’t always hyphenate if modifier is two
nouns (e.g., health care system, income tax
cut)
 Adjective-noun modifiers (e.g., two-car
garage, middle-class lifestyle)
 Noun-participle combinations (e.g., role-
playing games, love-starved cat)
 When three or more words used to modify
(40-foot-long pole, baseball-cap-wearing
fans)

36. COMPOUND MODIFIERS
 General Guidelines
 Hyphenate to avoid confusion (high-school-
aged children vs. high school-aged children)
 Don’t hyphenate when adverb ends in “ly”
(e.g., early rising bird)
 Compounds with “most” and “least” usually
don’t take a hyphen (e.g., most appreciated
teacher)
 Compounds with “best” and “worst” tend to
take a hyphen (e.g., best-loved stories)

37. POP QUIZ (DAILY WRITING TIPS)
We offer an industry leading cloud based
property management solution.
We offer an industry-leading, cloud-based
property management solution.
We offer an industry-leading, cloud-based
property-management solution.

38. POP QUIZ
They criticized the arbitrary measures
taken so far on the air-travel security front.
They criticized the arbitrary measures
taken so far on the air-travel-security front.

39. POP QUIZ
That’s enough to power about 90 percent of
a 1,500-square foot home.
That’s enough to power about 90 percent of
a 1,500-square-foot home.

40. POP QUIZ
They are turning a blind eye to what their
low and middle ranking members do on the
streets.
They are turning a blind eye to what their
low- and middle-ranking members do on
the streets.
Not: They are turning a blind eye to what
their low-and-middle-ranking members do
on the streets.

45. WHEN IN DOUBT
 Rephrase or rewrite
 Show it to other people
 Give it the “overnight test”
 Look for precedents
 Edit for clarity, brevity and
consistency

46. RECOMMENDATION
Read a lot.
Read with a critical eye.
Make note of errors you see repeatedly.
Read because language keeps changing.

47. RESOURCES
 “Associated Press Style Guide”
 Strunk and White’s “The Elements of
Style”
 “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” by Lynne Truss
 “Common Errors in English Usage” by
Paul Brian

48. RESOURCES
 http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/erro
rs.html
 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/
 http://www.copyblogger.com/

52. Thank you.
Any questions?
ggillen@sacherokee.com