GrammarPhile Blog

I’ve come to confess. When I laugh extremely hard and simultaneously attempt to speak, I sound like a severely asthmatic pterodactyl. When I’m cackling over a bad joke* with my children or polishing off a bag of chips while binge-watching Netflix, it’s a delightful addition to the atmosphere. At other times, it’s a liability.

A couple of years ago, I was teaching an English class that went awry. My roster was filled with extremely dedicated, serious students, the type for whom a score of ninety was akin to a death knell for their scholastic dreams. While explaining a concept to a particularly sober young woman, I referenced the world map behind me. As I touched on the surface with the tips of my fingers, the clasp on the left-hand side broke and the map went catawampus. My eyes widened and I lapsed into stunned silence. I was overwhelmed by the awkwardness of the map’s precarious position and giggled. The student stared at me, deadpan, her lips disappearing into a thin line and her back ramrod straight. I attempted to regain my train of thought.

The map fell off the wall.

What can I say about 2020? This has and continues to be the most different and difficult year I’ve lived through. Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I’ve had a hard time getting into the holiday mood. But I realize that as difficult as the past months have been, I do have lots to be thankful for. And I owe it to my family to uphold some of our holiday traditions.

When you envision a proofreader reviewing your writing, what do you see?

Do you see a person wearing a pair of coke-bottle glasses and an oversized sweater hunched over a stack of papers? Does he have a giant red pen in his hand and a condescending glare in his eye, a smirk on his face, just ready to tear your work to shreds? Is she setting out to edit your work until it fits her idea of perfection, even if it’s far from your original vision? Is he also using grammar and spell check technology to do all his work for him? If this is how you view a proofreader, you’re not alone. Luckily, however, this vision of a proofreader is simply a myth.

Read the common myths about proofreaders debunked below so you’ll have a clearer and more positive vision of what a proofreader is really like.    

Myth #1: A Proofreader Is an Editor

Proofreaders review a piece of writing in its final draft meticulously, word-by-word and line-by-line, typically after it’s already been edited. They look for accurate spelling and grammar, and fix issues with the formatting and overall layout of a piece of writing. They also fix punctuation errors, typos, or incorrect use of language.

Here's a quiz we posted a while ago that received a lot of response. But, the average score was just 44%. Want to see if you can beat the average? 

I recently stumbled upon material on business writing that was written by Minerva Heller Neiditz and published in 1993. Although the material needs some minor updating, I was surprised that much of it still applies today in business writing. Neiditz, who is presently 87 years old, wrote this book when she was 61. She’s written several books since; her most recent was published when she turned 85. Neiditz has a varied background that includes advanced degrees, politics, activism, professor, wife, mother, writer, and world traveler. But this is not the complete list.

Her book “Business Writing at Its Best” (Irwin Professional Pub, 1993) is filled with commonsense material on how to write effective business correspondence. If you struggle with writing simple, effective business correspondence, take a page from the Neiditz business-writing playbook. Here are some highlights of her material. (The below outline is not verbatim from her book, and my comments are enclosed in brackets.)

So, how'd you do?

Perhaps after reading last week’s Sheryl’s She Shed blog challenge, you’ve had the opportunity to actually see the commercial on TV. If so, would you agree there’s something suspect about Victor’s indifferent response regarding the lightning strike? There are many theories circulating social media as to Victor’s role in the burning down of Sheryl’s she-shed. Do you have a humorous take on what might have happened? If so, we’d enjoy hearing from you. Let your imagination run wild and post your ideas below in the comments section.

Wow, as you can see, we received a range of answers to this challenge.

There are 31 wrong words, and as many of you pointed out, “chichi-er” could have simply been “chichier.” Inserting the hyphen was my mistake; I put my faith in material I read on the internet concerning “chichi,” instead of looking up the word in Merriam-Webster. Lesson learned? Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t make it correct!

We were initially looking for 31 wrong words; however, if you guessed 31 OR 32, we accepted you as a winner, since many of you included “chichi-er,” which took the total to 32.

Here is the list the first five people who answered correctly from the challenge we assigned our readers. Congratulations!  We'll be in touch with each of you.

• Tara Bann
• Deborah Baron
• Amy
• Desmond Ballance
• Andrea Isiminger

If you're one of the winners, please send your email address to Conni@ProofreadNOW.com so we can send your gift to you.

And for those of you who guessed over or under in the number of mistakes, here’s the answer key. All mistakes are highlighted in yellow.Thanks to everyone who participated!

Hello, GrammarPhile blog subscriber,

Many of you have not subscribed to our Words! Words! Words! quizzes. So, I thought you might like to see what you're missing. If you'd like to subscribe, please go to the "Subscribe to Email Updates" block to the right and select the Words! Words! Words! subscription. 

I hope you enjoy this quiz. Let me know how you did in the comments section.

***

On September 17, 1976, NASA publicly unveiled its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, California. Development of the aircraft-like spacecraft cost almost $10 billion and took nearly a decade. In 1977, the Enterprise became the first space shuttle to fly freely when it was lifted to a height of 25,000 feet by a Boeing 747 airplane and then released, gliding back to Edwards Air Force Base on its own accord. Try our word quiz and see how high you can soar and how far you can glide.

I rarely watch TV. But when I do, I watch only those shows that I’ve DVR’d — because I abhor commercials. My always-editing brain can shred to pieces commercial scripts and have fresh copy mentally written before the commercial concludes. I exaggerate, of course.

There is one commercial, however, that I’ve become humored by and tolerant of — because it’s snappy, funny and creative. It’s State Farm Insurance’s commercial featuring Victor and Sheryl, and Sheryl’s She-Shed. Are you familiar with it? If not, you can watch it on Youtube here.

If this commercial evolved into a sit-com, I’d watch — even the commercials! Because I’d want to know whether Victor intentionally sabotaged Sheryl’s she-shed so that he could claim the space for a man-cave — a place where he and all his buddies could gather on Saturdays to watch college football on a mega large-screen TV.

Below is a silly prequel to this specific commercial. And it’s filled with lots of incorrect words that sound like or look like the word that is actually meant. It’s up to you to read (carefully) and tally up the number of incorrect words used.

The first five readers to post the correct number (no more, no less) of incorrect words found in the text will receive a small gift from ProofreadNOW.com. So, post your answer in the comments. There is a deadline though; only answers received before 5:00pm ET on Sept. 18, 2019 will be counted. AND your first answer counts; no fair going through and submitting more than one answer.

We’ll contact you if you’re a winner, and the answer key will be posted next week. Happy hunting! (The contest includes only the material below this line of text.)

Let’s be honest. Not many of us know exactly what [sic] means, or how to write it and use it correctly. Do we write sic, (sic), or [sic]? And where exactly do we put [sic] in a sentence or excerpt? Are there multiple meanings of sic or multiple uses for [sic]?

If we do know how to use [sic], some might even argue that using it can make us look a little pompous. Or they might laugh off its use as unnecessary or extraneous. Check out these comments about [sic], published by The Guardian.

Well, here’s most of what you need to know about [sic].

What Does [sic] Mean or Indicate?

According to the Merriam-Webster 11^th Collegiate Dictionary, [sic] as an adverb is defined as intentionally so written — used after a printed word or passage to indicate that it is intended exactly as printed or to indicate that it exactly reproduces an original. As a verb, it means chase or attack, or to incite or urge to an attack, pursuit, or harassment. In yet its third form it is a Scottish variant of such.

In its adverb form, sic can be written in italics or included in parentheses or brackets when it’s used, although including sic inside brackets is the most common option. But sic is not included in parentheses or brackets when it’s used as a verb or instead of other words like “thus” or “such.”

Today, the Persnickety Editor is suggesting you ditch certain phrases from your writing. Review the sentences below and try to identify these oft-used phrases found in business communications that are wordy, awkwardly written, have no clear meaning, make you chuckle when you actually picture in your mind what is written, and simply don’t belong in a business communication. Caution: There could be more than one per sentence…