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 […]
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 […]