If you didn’t spot the ‘double the’ in the subject line, don’t beat yourself up. You’re in good company. Very few people spot a ‘double the’. In fact, very few people are good at spotting most of the common proofreading mistakes, particularly in their own writing.

Not wired for proofreading

The human brain isn’t geared to notice detail. It’s very good at spotting what it needs to see – a mate, food, danger (not necessarily in that order) – but unless told otherwise, it tends to miss the little stuff.

If you’ve never seen The Invisible Gorilla test, have a look now. Incredible, eh?

Spot the gorilla

So, when it comes to proofreading, stop working on instinct. Train yourself to look for gorillas.

(By the way, there are ten deliberate errors in this article. See how many you can spot.)

Number 1. Homophones

Homophones (from the Greek words homos, meaning same, and phone, meaning sound) are words that have the same sound but different meanings. They occur when we type quickly and because they don’t look wrong, we don’t see them. Unfortunately, spelling and grammar checkers won’t spot these. Your on you’re own here.

Some commonly overlooked homophones:

Anti/ante
Bare and bear
Break/brake
By/buy
Compliment/complement
Fair/fare
Hear/here
Hole/whole
Its/it’s
New/knew
One/won
Peace/piece
Principal/principle
Right/write
Sight/site
Steal/steel
Stationery/stationary
There/their/they’re
To/too/two
You’re/your

Number 2. Inconsistency

There are so many potential inconsistencies, its hardly surprising we miss a few. We don’t spot them because individually they’re not wrong. It’s only when they occur again later in the document in a different form that a problem occurs.

Here are some classic inconsistencies to look out for:

Dates – 4 July 2016, July 4 2016, 4th July 2016, July 4th 2016
Compound words – proof-reading, proofreading, proof reading
American and British English – colour/color, programme/program, licence/license
Headings – Title Case, Sentence case, UPPERCASE
Times – 3.00pm, 3pm, 15.00, 3 o’clock
Numbers – 3, 5, 9/three, five, nine
Symbols – %/percent, +/plus, &/and
Layout – one or two space after full stops, hyphens (-) used instead of dashes (–)
Double and single quote marks – “We’re delighted with the result.” ‘It was a tough campaign – but we did it!’

Number 3. Apostrophe problems

With apostrophes being used to show possession (belonging to something) and contraction (missing letters) it’s know wonder some people get confused.

Common apostrophe problems:

Wrong: Its uncertain whose to blame.
Right: It’s uncertain who’s to blame.

Wrong: Childrens’ clothes are usually cheaper than adults clothes.
Right: Children’s clothes are usually cheaper than adults’ clothes.

Wrong: I’m selling my old DVD’s.
Right: I’m selling my old DVDs.

Wrong: We’re going to Paul’s and Joe’s party.
Right: We’re going to Paul and Joe’s party. (when Paul and Joe share a party)

Number 4. Poor syntax

Syntax is the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences. Poor syntax is often due to missing a key word; sometimes it’s simply the right words in the wrong order. Poor syntax is easy to miss because even poorly constructed sentences can still makes sense.

Examples of poor syntax:

Poor: She served sandwiches to guests on paper plates.
Better: She served sandwiches on paper plates to guests.

Poor: After eating my lunch, the waiter seemed keen to talk.
Better: After I’d eaten my lunch, the waiter seemed keen to talk.

Poor: For sale: bed for cat shaped like a dustbin
Better: For sale: dustbin shaped cat bed (or ‘dustbin shaped bed for a cat’)

Number 5. Double or missing words

Double words aren’t a problem if you’re using Word with the the Spelling & Grammar Checker running as you write, or if you run a check the end. (Why would you NOT run a check?)

But if you’re not using the checker, or you’re reading a print out, watch out for double or missing words. They’re easy mistakes to make if you type fast but not so easy to spot.

If you’d like a marked-up version showing the xx mistakes, please email lorraine@forrest-turner.co.uk using the subject headline ‘Answers to the 5 most common proofreading mistakes’.

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash