Proverbs For Proofreading

Presentation Media Software

Instructor:

Glenda H. Easter

ITSW1410

Proverbs for Writing 2

You Can't See the Forest For the Trees

When you are the writer, editor, typist or typesetter proofreading your own work, you see your ideas rather than your words.

You are too close to see all the errors. Get help.

Proverbs for Writing 3

Familiarity Breeds Content.

When you see the same copy again When you see the same copy again and again through the different and again through the different stages of production, you will miss stages of production, you will miss new errors.new errors.

Fresh eyes are needed.Fresh eyes are needed.

Proverbs for Writing 4

If It's as Plain As . . .

If it's as plain as the nose on your face, everybody can see it but you

Where is the reader most likely to notice errors? – In a headline; in a title; in the first

line, first paragraph or first page of copy; and in the top lines of a new page.

– These are precisely the places proofreaders are most likely to miss.

Proverbs for Writing 5

If It's as Plain As . . . (Continued)

Errors often cluster. When you find one, look hard

for others nearby.

Proverbs for Writing 6

When You Change Horses in Midstream, . . .

When you change horses in midstream, you can get wet.

It's easy to overlook an error set in type that is different from the typeface you are reading.

Watch out when type changes to all caps, italics, bold face, small sizes and large sizes.

Watch out when underlines appear in typed copy.

Proverbs for Writing 7

The Footbone Connected to the Kneebone?

Numerical and alphabetical sequences often go awry.

Check for omissions and duplications in page numbers, footnote numbers or notations in outlines and lists.

Check any numeration, anything in alphabetical order, and everything sequential (such as a path of arrows in a flowchart).

Proverbs for Writing 8

It Takes Two to Boogie

An opening parenthesis needs a closing parenthesis. Brackets, quotation marks (and sometimes dashes) belong in pairs. Catch the bachelors.

Proverbs for Writing 9

Every Yoo-Hoo Deserves a Yoo-Hoo Back

A footnote reference mark or a first reference to a table or an illustration is termed a callout.

Be sure a footnote begins on the same page as its callout.

Be sure a table or illustration follows its callout as soon as possible.

Proverbs for Writing 10

Numbers Can Speak Louder Than Words

Misprints in figures can be catastrophic. Take care with dollar figures and numbers in dates, statistics, tables or technical text.

Read all numerals character by character. – For example, read "2001" as two

zero zero one.

Proverbs for Writing 11

Two Plus Two Is Twenty-Two

The simplest math can go wrong. Do not trust figures giving percentages

and fractions or the "total" lines in tables.

Watch for misplaced decimal points. Use your calculator.