Credibility and grammar

Good grammar gives people credibility. It’s critical. You lose integrity if what you put on paper is incorrect or lazy. Using improper grammar in social media, in papers, emails, or websites makes other people assume that you are stupid. Your words and use of grammar portrays who you are; they reflect you, they get you hired, they help you pass subjects at university, and as a company they help people trust you. 

Hold back on dropping commas throughout your sentences like bombs over Hiroshima. Read it aloud. Does it sound good or does it sound like a machine gun? Details. Attention to detail is ensuring high standards, and giving your devotion and attention to the details of your work. It means that your end result is polished. 

As a writer, editor and proofreader I know it’s easy to make mistakes when rushing. Even wordsmiths need to pause and mentally work stuff out. My problem words are affect versus effect. My Apostrophes, colons and commas can be thrown around like a sock in a tumble dryer so get it proofread. Check your words for plurals, it’s women for more than one, not woman. 

A key aspect to remember is readability. If the reader has to slam on the brakes at something s/he scans or needs to go back to re-read because it was confusing – you’ll lose them. When we write ourselves, we have in our heads, how it’s supposed to sound. This could lead to ghost words. Words we think are there but aren’t. A Proofreader is brilliant at picking this up. A proofreader will also remove or suggest you remove superfluous words such as ‘that’. Less is more. People don’t want to read waffle. They want to get to the point. Know your their, there and they’re’ s, your and you’re, and it’s and its. Get it stuck in your head, but if you can’t, get a proofreader. Here, I can recommend one at www.kirstieanders.com  

Proofread

Proofreading your own work is incredibly important and doable. It's about examining what you have written carefully to correct typographical faults. Prior to proofreading your document, ensure you have given yourself some space from the text especially if you have just finished writing it. Print it off and read it aloud. This can help with picking up run-on sentences and other issues you might miss reading to yourself. You can also read it backwards, the words come in a strange and unusual order and will make it easier to pick up errors. It is easier to pick up mistakes from a printout rather than on screen. You are also able to feel more intimate with the work on paper. You can use a computers spell check however, but this may not discern variances between US English and Australian English and may miss some properly spelt words in incorrect places such as their, there and they're and weather and whether or which and witch.

Proofreading is done following editing, which involves inspecting content to make certain that concepts are expressed clearly, logically forming an intelligible and meaningful whole. Proofreading is done in finer detail and is last so needs to be flawless. This is why often, it's worth looking at an independent proofreader. When you proofread work that you have written yourself, you are so familiar with it that you see what you think you have written rather than what you really wrote.

A professional proofreader examines text critically and carefully and is expected to be consistently accurate in focusing on surface errors like spelling mistakes, or errors in punctuation, syntax and grammar. A proofreader will also check your clarity of expression. A writer of any document works hard to get the right words down and after working on something for some time, can start to miss common slip-ups and often don't have the time to spend to ensure professional and high quality work. Fresh, qualified eyes on a project can make all the difference with regards to a writers reputation, making a proofreader indispensable. Proofreaders can proofread novels, academic papers, people whose second language is English, corporate or government official papers, business documents such as manuals, websites, marketing materials, personal documents such as resumes, letters and emails.

In any case, it is important to be clear and avoid embarrassment. It's important to get merit for your work not your English writing ability. Get marked for your ideas rather than your grammar. Work with someone who consistently returns timely documents that have been proofread and/or edited with precision.

Please see my website for all your proofreading work. http://kirstieanders.com

I use Microsoft Word's Track Changes. Every suggestion I make on your document will be 'tracked', and any query or comment will appear in the margin.

When I return your copy edited documents with the tracked-changes and the completed copy, it will show all changes and queries. This will give you, the author, complete control over the final version. You can go through the tracked-changes, and accept or reject any changes, reading my comments in the margin, and you can choose whether or not to take on my suggestions. It will always be your work and your say.