[thelist] proofreading (was: A No-Brainer Tip)

Marc Seyon seyon at carib-link.net
Mon Feb 12 12:13:44 CST 2001


At 2/12/2001 05:51 PM, you wrote:


>Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers
>
>-------------------- Start of message text --------------------
>
>While of course, client proofreading is essential, sometimes you've
>just got to put in xxxx for phone numbers etc. However, what you *can*
>do is make it damn obvious (red, bold, whatever) so it's easy to pick
>out @ proofreading stage.
>
>Cheers
>Martin

Martin I agree. If you know you do this sort of 'placeholder' thing 
regularly, maybe you should make it stand out more. Or, alternatively, if 
you know this is regularly done in your organisation, use a search/replace 
to look for the "(XXX)" or whatever else is used.

That said though, if your proofreader is missing something as blatant as 
(XXX), imagine how many *other* minute details s/he is missing.

Anyone care to share some tips on how to best approach proofreading?

I usually do it in steps, looking for different errors each time - once for 
spelling and simple grammar, once for double spaces and other design 
problems such as "orphan" words, blah blah, and finally a general read to 
make sure it all makes sense, flows, is grammatically correct, etc.

Oh, and as far as possible, never be the sole proofer of something you've 
written yourself. You tend to "see" what you think you've written rather 
than what is actually there.

regards.
-marc




More information about the thelist mailing list