Proofreading words v. proofing ideas
Word-level proofing
Reading backwards
Referring to stylebook, writer’s handbook, textbook, sources and websites, including course page
Toolkit
Copyediting symbols (in your stylebooks)
Sometimes it’s just a little typo
Scared Heart
Untied Methodist Church
Musharraf addresses pubic outcry
Brain Carol of Barry College
Condoleeza Rice
Usage
that/which who/whom its/it’s hyphens/dashes farther/further over/more than more to come on these confusing words
What is punctuation for?
Serves readersHelps readers comprehend meaningPrevents stumbling when reading aloudUnderlines meaningPrevents misunderstandingFacilitates the activity of reading
Commas
Eats Shoots & Leaves
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
What’s the difference? A world of difference, right?
Commas
Children drive slowly
Children, drive slowly
Drive slowly! Children at play
Drive carefully! Slow children at play
Commas
Verily, I say unto thee, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise!
Verily I say unto thee this day, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise!
Commas: When to use them
Commas in a series Commas with modifiers Commas with nonessential phrases, like
parentheses Commas with introductory phrases and clauses
“A rabid, diseased beast, the man didn’t want to put his dog to sleep
Commas with ages, addresses, dates Commas in attribution and quotations
Semi-colons
Know when to use them; know when not to use them.
Closely related phrases, but a full stop is too much.
They are not commas, nor are they used as commas.
Colons: They’re a lot like invoices
They “deliver the goods that have been invoiced in the preceding words.” (H.W. Fowler)
“This much is clear, Watson: It was the baying of an enormous hound.”
Tom has only one rule in life: Never eat anything bigger than your head.
I pulled out all the stops for this assignment: I used a semi-colon!
Note the differences
Tom locked himself in the closet. Dook lost to the Heels.
Tom locked himself in the closet; Dook lost to the Heels.
Tom locked himself in the closet: Dook lost to the Heels.
These are all correct:
The bus’s tires The Jones’ house; Mr. Jones’s house children’s playground women’s movement babies’ bibs Keats’s poem New York Times’s main printing facility Achilles’s heel
What’s wrong with these?
Student’s Entrance Adult Learner’s Week Berry professor’s wives Lands’ End (actual company name) Mens Toilets Pansy’s for sale Cyclist’s Only
Hyphens (they hold together)
Pains-taking 30-car pileup “I reached for the w-w-w-watering can.” The 2-year-old and the 3-year-old played
together. Re-enter Foot-pedal Fine-tooth comb
Parallel structure problems
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.
One cannot think well, have love, fall asleep, if dinner was bad.
Billy likes fielding and hitting.
Billy likes to field and hitting.
Avoiding cliches like the plague :-)
last but not least give 110% (I heard 2,000% yesterday!) untimely death (think about this one) few and far between stick to the game plan off the wagon, on the wagon or circling the
wagons
Brevity is the soul of lingerie (Dorothy Parker, via Hamlet) Write a short story in just six words “Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket.” William
Shatner “Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?” Eileen
Gunn “Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.” Joss Whedon “Longed for him. Got him. Shit.” Margaret Atwood Wasted day. Wasted life. Dessert, please.” Steven
Meretzky