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Want to share your experiences, advice, or ideas with the GrammarPhile community? Do you have grammar, punctuation, editing questions you'd like answered? Submit guest post ideas or questions to conni@proofreadnow.com.

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Proofreading Errors

Posted by Conni Eversull on Tue, Sep 28, 2010 @ 03:00
  
  
  
  

I've posted before that typos, bad grammar and poor punctuation really drive me crazy. So this week, I'm sharing some posts and a video I've seen that speak to my frustrations on the subject.

Typos

Here's a man who's on a mission. Jeff Deck hunts down typos and tries to fix them. Read his story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129086941. Keep up the good work, Jeff!

Another post about typos on signs and menus is at http://cgwebhelp.com/?p=308.

Resume Errors

As someone who has reviewed hundreds of resumes over the years from prospective employees, I found the following to be amusing. Whether you're in the midst of writing your own resume or you're someone who is reviewing resumes, I think you'll get a few chuckles out of the following links:

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FClWySJ6Sxs

150 funniest resume blunders: http://jobmob.co.il/blog/funniest-resume-mistakes/ 

Book Publishing Errors

Another of my pet peeves is when I come across grammar and spelling errors in a book that I've purchased. Shouldn't these have been caught by someone at the publishing house before the book was printed?  Take a look at this list of errors caught in one book: http://www.bookerrata.com/books/undervolcano.html. I know the published date was a while ago but there's still no excuse in my book for errors like these.

If you have any examples of proofreading errors you'd like to share, please send us your comments!

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Comments

No examples ... but the textbook reminds me of one I had in grad school -- I forget which subject -- but I was thoroughly incensed the entire semester because I'd had to pay so much for a book in such deplorable condition!
Posted @ Tuesday, September 28, 2010 10:50 by Margo Grant
Speaking of resumes, there is, of course, our television commercial we made a while back... 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKD54Y8Oxe0
Posted @ Tuesday, September 28, 2010 11:19 by Phil Jamieson
I'm almost finished reading "The Great Typo Hunt" and recommend it highly -- especially for voracious orthographers! I found myself saying, "Oh my gosh, that's me!" from the very beginning.
Posted @ Tuesday, September 28, 2010 12:49 PM by Carrie Danley
When I was in high school, our family subscribed to a certain daily newspaper in Indianapolis. The typos and mistakes were deplorable. At one point, I pulled out an entire page and highlighted all the errors and wrote something in red pen to the effect of, "Isn't anyone editing over there?!" and mailed it to them. 
What a little smart-ass I was, haha. But it did irk me that a publication that calls itself professional would have such poor editing. I think they laid off all their proofreaders when the economy got tough.
Posted @ Tuesday, September 28, 2010 9:57 PM by Jen
I rarely read a book without finding at least one error. It seems that they are becoming more common. I am guessing the whole publishing industry is just cutting corners. 
 
 
 
In recent memory, there is a book called In Search of Time by Dan Falk. A good book - but there were several places where a single word or just a few were spread across the page mid-paragraph... 
 
 
 
I n S e a r c h o f T i m e 
 
 
 
Which creates a very bizarre feeling when you are reading about the possibility that time can speed up, slow down, and actually does not exist.
Posted @ Saturday, October 02, 2010 10:46 by GR
Okay, that didn't show what it looked like, maybe this will... 
 
 
 
I.....n.........S........e.......a.......r.......c.....h 
 
 
 
OK you get the idea.
Posted @ Saturday, October 02, 2010 10:48 by GR
I've had my second book published by PublishAmerica. It's a great book, except there is one error that screams at the reader. The Table of Contents repeats two lines and one word is misspelled. And a couple of introductions begin on the bottom of a page instead of at the top of the next page that it introduces. I checked the first proof and made corrections but they did not send me the second proof. It is obvious that the second proof contained these errors. And, I did not send my manuscript to them this way but they refuse to correct it. I think some publishers are just out to make money and do not care about the author. That is why ProofreadNow is so important.
Posted @ Wednesday, October 27, 2010 7:38 by Lynnette Goldy
Well, Lynnette, I hope you didn't pay them! Curious about PublishAmerica, I visited their website. Within a minute, I found 4 errors on their home page! Who knows how many I'd find if I read the entire page? What, no proofreaders on staff?
Posted @ Wednesday, October 27, 2010 11:16 by Conni Eversull
Working on a project RIGHT NOW for someone who understands the value of proofreading and just found: Great Britain maintained navel supremacy in part by developing the Dreadnought class of battleships. Spellcheck would be no help here! Don't give up hope fellow proofreaders! : )
Posted @ Wednesday, October 27, 2010 1:37 PM by Julie D
Navel supremacy is more often termed as having an outie.
Posted @ Wednesday, October 27, 2010 2:08 PM by Phil Jamieson
Although not grammatically incorrect, this 1980s headline from our Hawai'i daily newspaper remains in my memory these many years: Hapuna Swimmer Drowns Tomorrow.
Posted @ Friday, December 02, 2011 10:31 by susan campbell
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