Improve your Writing (Proofreading)

in #writing7 years ago

If writing it wasn't hard enough... Now you have to read through it again. But "I am lazy" you tell yourself, "I am sure nothing is wrong". Sad thing is you have to do it, it might be hard at times.


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Today I am not going to ptoofread this post just to show you how many mistakes do came up. I normally proofread all my posts and every now and then you guys comment on some mistakes that are in the post. See if you cn find these mistakes in this post.

Why is it important to proofrad your work? Proofreading sucks, we all know this, I even hate it, but it is really important. While we write we usually write quite fast and our grammar and smelling usually comes out fun and inventive, but is should not be this way.


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You are not meant to be creating new words, we have more than enough already. You should also not be adding new grammar rules to that horrible long list of rules.

Mistakes might seem small, but many added together can become a huge disaster for your paper. Ever read a CV and looked at all the mistakes and thought "this guy is an idiot" how can you hire someone that can't write properly, or is to lazy to proofread?

When writing something you want to leave like that cool guy with them shades on and swag suit. So come on people make your writing look professional. Let me show you the difference:

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OR


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Just like above, if your reading looks amazing your reader will want to read more. Thes also increases clarity in your paper and it helps make your paper smooth, so remove thses small mistakes and proofread.

A few examples: Link

- "The sun is a natural source of ultraviolent rays."
Corrected: "The sun is a natural source of ultraviolet rays."

- "Rome was invaded by the ballbearings."
Corrected: "Rome was invaded by the barbarians."

- "At the battle of Hastings the Angels and the Saxons were defeated by the Mormans."
Corrected: "At the battle of Hastings the Anglos and the Saxons were defeated by the Normans."

- "Joan of Arc was burnt at the steak."
Corrected: "Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake."

- "Romeo and Juliet tell each other how much they love each other in the baloney scene."
Corrected: "Romeo and Juliet tell each other how much they love each other in the balcony scene."


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Just on a little side note for self improvement. I will be doing pushups, situps and squats for the amount of $$$ (ratio;$2:1) I earn on this post and will give a short feedback every day at the end of each post. This will be split in equally between all 3. Any not done will carry onto the next day.

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Predictive text has a lot to answer for!

Predictive text works good I guess, I use Grammarly to correct any mistakes that I end up making. What tools and apps do you use?

I don't use a tool or app but I am often caught out by predictive text as it often gets things wrong. Because you are not expecting changes to what you type to be automatic ... it is handy sometimes though so I'm reluctant to remove it!

works well*! See, predictive text is rubbish!

As a new steemian this is helpful for me to create better content in my upcoming blogs. Will keep looking for your next helpful posts.

This comment has received a 0.49 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @cryptokraze.

I totally agree with you that proofreading is a chore but can make a difference of day and night to one's writing. I try to proofread but sometimes things do slip past. Your example of 'ultaviolent' rays is funny!! Not in a blog but in my official communications when I was an Executive, I made the following horrible mistakes and luckily caught them in my proof reading before I hit 'send' on the emails - Instead of Best regards, I had ended up typing 'Beast regards', 'Breast regards' and even 'Best Retards' !!! Lol

I left a message for you on the Steemit Chat. If you find time and are inclined, I would be honored if you take a look at my blogs and leave comments. Thanks

hahahah love your example thank you for sharing. I will go have a look :)

I was actually embarrassed that I made those typos. Glad that you find them amusing. Please feel free to include in your future examples :)

Hahaha you're right... I cringed every sentence or two reading this. Proofreading makes a big difference. I'll try to maintain my habit of going over my poetry through all stages of development, and finally that one last time before hitting the blue button 😁

@imwatsi ~ I write poems


Haha so you found the mistakes I made :) some were intentional.

Yes I am trying to fight my laziness and proofreading help even more if English is not your first language (my case). I've read emails from colleagues at work that they didn't find the time to proofread them and I've seen several hilarious associations :) Great article

Hahaha hope you have found some of my lovely mistakes as I have already :D. Sometimes I really enjoy reading as it can be so funny.

great write up,proofreading is one of the most important skill every writer must have,because some small mistake will make the whole article look like you don't know what you are doing,but nevertheless,i write a lot and i sometime i do forgot to fix my ass by posting without proofreading,nice post,kindly check my blog @ https://steemit.com/@cryptohunt

I will have a look at your blog. Sometimes I just don't have the time to proofread.

I totally agree with your opinion
Actually sometimes I forget to megoreksi my writing
Indeed, every one we want to write, it must be really in thought, and careful cultivation.
Sometimes I write so fast without thinking, it makes me sometimes less content to see my own results.
But I love writing too.
If I really want to write with good quality, I will devote my whole mind, and check it even days for a post, that I do before I post.

Thanks to your writing, making your comments a motive for me to be more careful in writing, and correct my own writing

Your post is good
Steem on

My keyboard is a bit broken and if I write fast and don't look at what i am writing I often leave out letters in the words.

True, I also often in that case
Now I will be more careful
Check back what I wrote before posting

The trouble is that mistakes are smarter than us and know to diguise themselves. In my experience as a journalist I discovered that it's better to wait a little before proofreading your article. Take a break, go out and smoke, then come back and read it again. If I re-read the post right-away it looks just perfect, I don't see anything wrong.
I remember one time when I wrote Louis XIV instead of Louis XVI. Nobody noticed until a furios reader called and demanded to know what kind of idiots worked there?

Proofreading is sucking since elementary school. But we need to do it otherwise the Internet does it for us. And the Internet is not nice!!!

hahaha I have to agree with you

Yup, Not have written before Steemit, Now started writing after Steemit .. , Not being able to write as good as you do ..., but Trying ... :)

That's helpful
Thanks

Love your articles, keep up the good work. Your tips really help. Glad I followed

When you write you should at the same time 'proofread out loud' to overrule grammar errors

Write write and write more. Than read it a few times. I was never good at writing when i starting college but I am about to graduate with a 3.73 GPA. Because of all that I can now do almost any type of paper.

Laziness is the biggest reason.

I think everybody hates proofreading, but ultimately it's incredible important. I handed in a paper with a massive mistake in the very first sentence once because I didn't proofread properly. Not my proudest moment!

I swear you're making some of these mistakes on purpose ;)

Hehehehe maybe... ;)

upvote.
your article always make an inspiration.

As a non-english speaker i always go take care of gramar errors I did, and oh do I find alot of them!! Clean writing is the way to go!

yes its true..... nice post

Trying to make me a better writing and whatnot. I'll take you up on that challenge and see what I can do to be better.

Auto correct can also create some unintended blunders. Even better than proofreading yourself is if you have someone else to proofread it for you. Many times, my brain knows what I wanted the post to say, so it tells my eyes that is what they are seeing.

Yes having an editor is a great thing. We have a class every week where we edit each others writing.

Inspiration..Inspiration..Inspiration...Thanks a lot sir..It will going to help me...Want to see such useful info

I rememeber after writing my first book, one of the MAIN issues I had was proofreading afterwards, it was more like....ok... ive already done the hard part, now i have to do it all over again.

its especially difficult if youve been writing all day and dont have the energy inside of you

funny enough, there are tons of people who will actually proof read things for free for you... i was lucky enough to have a few friends who are great at spelling so... that was a lucky find haha

Wow that is nice of them, mmm I think I should get a few book worms as my friends.

Theyll come in handy, i guarantee it !

That is always good. They also tend to know a lot, so if you have questions you are likely to get a good explanation and a book on it.

That's very helpful. Thank you. :D

This Chrome plugin is awesome to help with proof reading..

https://app.grammarly.com/

I've been using it for a few weeks now and as I'm not the best typist this is super helpful. When I'm in the groove I love to write and this takes some of the pain out of proof reading. This really does work. Peace!!

Hahaha ok I will check it out thank you.

good post thanks for sharing @dragonslayer109 i always follow ur post

i have found some small mistake.Instead of writing can,you have written cn

Wow this is a great post. This help me alot because some times one may pass me indeed. Proof reading is really very important. Thank you for clearing up some things i thought about. You are indeed a great writer.

Excellent article dragonslayer109. I edit my posts too often because I didn't proofread them more carefully. I haven't had anyone point any errors out yet, but what better way to demonstrate the quality of a post than by applying the message content to it. This was very helpful. Thank you.

I know at uni I always lost marks in essays because I was convinced it was cool, why proof read, I ma sure it will be fine, it was with a sense of dismay that the returned marked essay was more angry red marks than black ink.

But sun rays are ultra-violent! Just get in the sun for 5 hours without protection!


Do your proofreading, if possible, at least one day later. You will find strange things that were just slipping by your brain if you proofread just after writing.

This article made me laugh a little :') love it !

Very true...If am reading a text with spelling and grammatical errors , I tend to look down on the writer and lose interest. There is spell check damn it and why can't you proof read your work to make sure it makes sense. Nice post...thanks for sharing

Sometimes, after a long day, it is really had to do a proofread.

Hard or had ....LOL

@dragonslayer109 I counted 32, although sum ex ampules may be allowed now do two common usige.

Dam what are all those squiggly red linez under my text four?

Thanks for sharing these tips. I know how hard it is to write and then to get on with the proofreading part. I do use Grammarly, but then proofreading takes a lot of time.

It will be helpful if you could share a few tips to be a productive writer. It takes a lot of time for me to churn up something good. I usually end up writing just about 2000 or fewer words a day.

I have upvoted this post and also followed you, I will be grateful if you could do the same.

Thank you.

I cannot tell you enough how much this post means to me. I will totally judge you on your grammar! And dating sites? Oh. Em. Gee. I figure if you want to git yerself a illiterite, you just rite the way you been riting... ugh.
Texting, I will lay off... auto-correct and predictive typing and all that... but on a piece you want to share to show the world who and what you are? Zero chances. :D

Excelent post must have been difficult to write thinking out all those errors lol

I have downloaded many apps that help correct some of the errors in my writing but I have found proof reading the old fashioned way (with the naked eye) always puts my heart at ease.

Not proofreading can be quite embarrassing. Even if you think you've been careful, proofreading will often pick up mistakes. If you have time, just like when editing, it's best to step away from your work and come back to proofread after bit of time has passed. It helps avoid our tendency to see what we expect to see, rather than what is actually there, and you'll pick up mistakes you might have overlooked at first glance.

I don't mind the idea of creating new words (what fun!) but the very thought of MORE rules in grammar chills me to the bone. i before e except after c, d, f and t, right?

Thank you, following you, and you made a point that proofreading improves quality by correction of errors. But not only that, I believe that often better synonyms can be found and are replaced. Probably, it would be best to proofread one's mind before starting to write. I, for instance, just start writing without a plan, later proofreading removes errors but does not fix the basic structure or concept of my work. Good point you are making.

Nice reminder. I am always shocked how many mistakes I find after I put something down I've written and then read it again later.