I come across a wide variety of typos and errors when proofreading manuscripts, but certain mistakes pop up repeatedly. Familiarize yourself with these common mistakes so you can correct them—or avoid them entirely—in your own writing. 1. A single quotation mark instead of an apostrophe Examples: Incorrect: Go get ‘em. Correct: Go get ’em. An apostrophe—not a quotation mark—takes the place of a missing letter or letters. The direction that […]
Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. More on that in a moment. First, here’s my brief word-usage lesson for the day: a while or awhile? a while is a noun that means a length of time. Example: I haven’t seen you in a while. awhile is an adverb that means for a length of time. Example: I’d like to sleep awhile. You wouldn’t say “I haven’t seen you […]
As I browsed Amazon yesterday for a new pair of slippers (because as a writer/proofreader/stay-at-home mom, I go through slippers faster than shoes), a description for a pair of slippers with “rubber souls” caught my proofreader’s eye. In this context, the word soul was clearly misused; it should have been sole. Soul refers to a spiritual, life-giving essence. It may also mean a person or a fervent force. Examples: God […]
Do both words look correct to you? That’s because they are. It’ s all about correct word usage—knowing which word to use when. Don’t write payed when you mean paid, and vice versa. In most cases, paid will be the word you need. Payed has an extremely limited usage (and it doesn’t have anything to do with spending money). Paid is the past tense and past participle of pay and […]