The best proofreading advice I can give you is to slow down when you read your manuscript. Slow. Down. Ex. Treme. Lee. Take the time to literally focus on each and every syllable, letter, space, and punctuation mark (particularly the apostrophe). Concentrate and take in what is on the page as well as what isn’t. Sound ridiculous? Tedious? Maybe, but this is honestly what it takes to spot elusive errors. […]
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 […]
I was recently reading a new self-published Christian novel, and I was impressed. After several pages, I hadn’t found one typo, misspelling, or misused apostrophe—not even a misplaced comma or modifier. Wow! The text read smoothly, cleanly—a refreshing change from many self-published novels. Then there it was, on the first page of chapter two: the young woman’s gate faltered. Her what? I pictured a small door shuddering and squeaking on […]