Whether you have your own blog or proofread texts for other people, there are some mistakes that most people make. It is quite important to avoid them as sometimes a spelling error could make your argument invalid or denote lack of education. It is crucial to have a flawless piece of writing especially on the Internet, where people will judge you and if you have the misfortune to find a so-called “grammar nazi”, then you are doomed. Do not worry, because this post is going to help you avoid being humiliated on the Internet, so read ahead.
- Trusting Word Spell Check
Either you are using Microsoft Word or any other program, they usually come with a spell check. The thing is that most of the time, we usually look to see whether there is a word underlined with red and then modify it. The main problem with this that the program identifies words that are spelled incorrectly, but not according to context. For example, you can have the words god and good and accidentally put the first instead of the second. Your text will make no sense, however, the program will not detect any mistake. The same can happen with the misuse of an accent in Spanish and the results can be horrific. This is why, you should double check the whole text, not just the underlined words.
- Overlooking inconsistency
Due to the fact that there might not seem to be something wrong at first, inconsistencies get ignored most of the times. Also, there are many possible errors of this type that it gets really hard to identify them. The main reason why we fail to spot them is because if we take them individually, they are not wrong. However, when the structure appears again, in the text in a different form, that is when the problem occurs. Just to have an idea of an inconsistency, think about numbers. For example, you start your text by saying: “there are 3 rivers in…” and then continue by saying: ”the three rivers”. The same happens with symbols, time and dates. The best thing is to either only write them with numbers/ symbols or spell them out. Choose only one method.
- Doubling words or phrases
Repeating yourself is one of the most annoying things possible. You want to get the message across and it might not seem to much for you to repeat the same phrase twice, three times in a phrase like “buy this now”. However, for the reader, this is very irritating and it will make him or her lose interest in your work. Also, do double check to see if you have accidentally written the same word twice like for example: “he has always always done this”. A slip of an extra word will simply denote lack of professionalism and it will stain your reputation.
I hope that these tips help you improve your proofreading skills. If you want some more tips on how to better proofread your text check out this article.
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