I must have proofread it at least two dozen times. At least.

[MrPixel]

Yet on reading what went up this morning, two typos jumped out and smacked me in the face.

Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit.

 

[StillStunned]

They do it on purpose, the sneaky little buggers. Pretend to be perfectly nice words and sentences, even wave at you while you're reading, but as soon as the text is live, bam! they show their true nature.

Nasty little typos, we hates them!

 

[Mastered_again]

That's the problem with self-proofing. The more you read it, the more your eyes see what you wanted to write, not what you wrote

 

[PeytonMirabelle]

 

[Lifestyle66]

JUST two dozen proofreads?

I go through my stories about thirty or forty times, listening to the text to speech version, and making four or five changes almost every time. And the final version STILL has a few errors.

 

[Bazzle]

I've said it before...mine normally occur in the first paragraph or so.

I focus so much on the belly and ending, the beginning is utter gibberish.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yet on reading what went up this morning, two typos jumped out and smacked me in the face.

Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit.

Grammarly, as annoying as in can be - and it definitely is - will usually catch spelling errors. The word processor spell-checker can be used earlier. Of course, there/their/they're errors may not be picked up.

In the age of typewriters, I was rushing to finish a term paper when I left a there/their mistake in. The professor wrote on it, "This is a sinister grammatical error." Only an English professor would call it that.

 

[StillStunned]

In the age of typewriters, I was rushing to finish a term paper when I left a there/their mistake in. The professor wrote on it, "This is a sinister grammatical error." Only an English professor would call it that.

Because you left it in?

 

[TheLobster]

Because you left it in?

If only he had dexterously avoided it!

 

[Escierto]

It happens to everyone. I cringe when I see a typo in one of my stories but maybe it just reminds you no one is perfect. It makes me forgiving when I see a typo in someone else's story.

 

[SirAeghann]

Between writing, re-writing, editing, tweaking, and proofing I will be sick of the chapter by the time I give it to my editor. I make changes, reproof, etc. My work in progress readers will catch mistakes, I'll fix those, etc. Before I post it on Lit, multiple people have read it multiple times.

First comment on lit is a typo we all missed multiple times.

I wish I possessed a mere fraction of the tenacity of my typos. I'd be unstoppable.

 

[yowser]

'Der Fehlerteufel' strikes again!

 

[gunhilltrain]

They do it on purpose, the sneaky little buggers. Pretend to be perfectly nice words and sentences, even wave at you while you're reading, but as soon as the text is live, bam! they show their true nature.

Nasty little typos, we hates them!

They're like gremlins, except they attack text instead of airplanes. Did you ever see that World War II-era Bugs Bunny cartoon?

 

[Mastered_again]

They're like gremlins, except they attack text instead of airplanes. Did you ever see that World War II-era Bugs Bunny cartoon?

"Sabotagey"

 

[intim8]

That's the problem with self-proofing. The more you read it, the more your eyes see what you wanted to write, not what you wrote

One way to kinda get past that is to read your story backward, paragraph-wise. Lots of errors pop out that way, from grammar to story structure to continuity.

 

[MrPixel]

Grammarly, as annoying as in can be - and it definitely is - will usually catch spelling errors.

No grammar checkers - too many red flags to wade through for my realistic dialog-heavy style. These weren't spelling errors, anyway, the two typos were quote usage and "that" vs. "than". Word processing programs (I use MSWord and Apple Pages) flag spelling for me, anyway.

@Bazzle has it right. The quotes error was in the third paragraph. I had read the intros so many times they were a blur.

Text-to-voice would have caught neither.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Yet on reading what went up this morning, two typos jumped out and smacked me in the face.

Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit.

Don't beat yourself up. I proof read and edit my stories for months before I publish them. In my latest, one of the characters names strangely changed from Maggie to Grace. Go figure.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Because you left it in?

In the age of typewriters, your second term paper draft was the final one. Being 19 or whatever, I'd usually do it all in the last two or three days. I didn't have time to proofread very carefully. At my worst, I'd stay up all night to do both drafts. I suspect he used the term "sinister" because he thought I was ignorant rather than merely careless.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Too bad Anonymous doesn't offer editing services, right?

 

[gunhilltrain]

"Sabotagey"

It's called "Falling Hare" and it's notable how many period details got into it. (Wendell Wilkie, ration stickers, etc.) Near the end, it somehow foreshadows how a B-25 bomber hit the Empire State building two years later.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Don't beat yourself up. I proof read and edit my stories for months before I publish them. In my latest, one of the characters names strangely changed from Maggie to Grace. Go figure.

Oh God, names. At one point I couldn't keep Clara and Carla straight (the first was what I had intended). Understandable, but how did I change Chris to Vince?

 

[gunhilltrain]

Too bad Anonymous doesn't offer editing services, right?

Almost as bad as those who want a sequel. Flattering, I suppose, but I often think, "Okay, you got any ideas?" But sometimes they do have ideas, which are usually awful.

 

[jehoram]

It happens to all of us. One thing I've found useful is to take your text and paste it into another document, and change the type size and font. It makes the text "new" enough to catch some of the errors.

 

[KeithD]

This is review. It isn't proofreading. Proofreading is comparing a new version (proof) to an older version of the work and noting any differences between them. And, as has been noted happens best with a fresh set of eyes, this is best done by someone other than the original author (who sometimes has rendered something as they've thought it rather than how it actually turned out).

 

[StillStunned]

This is review. It isn't proofreading. Proofreading is comparing a new version (proof) to an older version of the work and noting any differences between them. And, as has been noted happens best with a fresh set of eyes, this is best done by someone other than the original author (who sometimes has rendered something as they've thought it rather than how it actually turned out).

Actually, this isn't true any more. Or at least not complete. I quote from the College of Media and Publishing:

Types of proofreading

There are two types of proofreading:

Proofreading “blind”

This is the most common form of proofreading.

The proofreader checks the final work, either on paper or onscreen, without seeing the original text.

Onscreen checking is usually done using:

• Adobe Reader’s correction tools on a pdf document.
• Track changes in an MS Word document.

Proofreading against a proof

This is mainly used by printed media and book publishers. The proofreader checks the typesetter’s text against the author’s original text. The proofs are usually printed on paper, as this is the best way to spot errors.

Text displayed onscreen is fainter. And, people tend to skim text onscreen.

The difference between proofreading and copy editing

Proofreaders and copy editors have different roles.

A proofreader corrects things that are wrong, when measured against a style guide, a dictionary, a grammar book or a reliable online source of information. They don’t revise or improve the text, or make it flow better. They only work with errors.