We inserted some really sneaky mistakes this time around — not because we wanted to trip you up, but because these are the kinds of errors we see frequently in documents that come through ProofreadNOW.com. And many are the kind that Microsoft Word (or another program’s spell-check or grammar-check feature) just won’t catch.
We’ve bracketed the original text in each example below and indicated the correct answers in green. Below each paragraph, we’ve provided additional explanations for some of the corrections, along with some links to previous blog posts for more detailed insight.
Because proofreading can be subjective, we allowed for multiple ways of fixing the errors, as long as the correction didn’t introduce another error or change the meaning of the original text. For example, in the second sentence of No. 2, both “a half-mile” and “half a mile” are acceptable corrections.
In the second sentence, quote marks around yes are unnecessary. Both yes and no are enclosed in quotations only when they are part of direct discourse, as in this example:
When asked if he agreed with the UCI’s ruling, Armstrong snapped, “No!”
In the third sentence, if “any time and any place” had been preceded by of, the words would have been correct as is, because time and place are both nouns in that instance, modified by the adjective any. But without of, the adverbs anytime and anyplace are required.
The error at the start of the last sentence escaped everyone, and it’s one we see fairly frequently. The use of “However” isn’t appropriate here because that sentence doesn’t contradict the preceding one.
Our winner, Samir, made this observation: “Technically, when police arrest a suspect, murder may not have been established yet. That comes later by the prosecutor. Therefore, ‘for murder’ should be taken out.” He’s right, and we thank him for pointing that out.
The last sentence contains some subtle problems with word choice: One typically goes through or completes, rather than receives, a training, and at least in American English, the correct term is regimen (a regular course of action or training) rather than regime (a form of government or system of management).
Also, while most people got that polygraph is one word instead of two, few recognized the redundancy in polygraph tests — a polygraph is a noun, not an adjective, that means “a test to determine if someone is telling the truth.”
All but a few people missed the dangling participial phrase at the beginning of the second sentence. “While acknowledging the appeal of the tax relief” is hanging out all by itself, with no indication of who is doing the acknowledging.
Only one person picked up on the missing end quote mark (another common and easy-to-overlook error).
The positioning of only in the penultimate sentence proved problematic too. Some people left it as is, others moved it incorrectly and a few appropriately moved it to the end of the sentence. Check out our post on misplaced modifiers for how they can change a sentence’s meaning.
A number of entrants corrected the hospital name, a couple added “Orlando” and no one caught the transposed numerals in the first sentence above. That might not be something you’d ordinarily check, but in this context, which appears to be marketing copy for the hospital, you want to make sure you get facts about the institution right. Check out our recent post on the scope of fact checking here.
Because Central Florida is a recognized region, it should be capitalized. “Very” at the beginning of the third sentence is incorrect because something is either unique or it isn’t — there aren’t degrees of uniqueness. Most entrants overlooked county because it’s spelled the same as country minus a letter. We encounter this kind of error regularly at ProofreadNOW.com.
The most commonly missed error in this paragraph was at the end of the first sentence: himself instead of him. Reflexive pronouns (those ending in -self) are used to show that the action in a sentence happens to the person or thing that does the action:
Cal treated himself to a large tax break.
See this post for more detail on how to use both reflexive pronouns and pronouns that are the object of a preposition, as in the paragraph above.
If you have questions about any of the other answers, please let us know in the comments below. We also offer an Ask the Grammar Expert feature on our website for any other grammar, punctuation or usage questions you might have. Thanks again for playing!