英语语法：79 Proofreading Tips

by Mignon Fogarty

Today's topic is proofreading².

Here's a question from Corinne that's pertinent³ to a news story that came out yesterday:
I have always had a problem of with my writing I forget the word "the" or I forget to put an "ed" on the end of a word, and it's not because I don't know to do it, but as I type I just seem to forget to put that there. I continue to read over it, I don't find anything, but this has come back to bite me a couple times. So I am wondering if you have any helpful suggestions that you might be able to provide me for how I could improve my writing skills, so when I'm actually typing something, when I go back and reread it that if I forget the word "the" or "of"  or something to that extent, that I actually find it. It's always hard to go back and proof your own writing. And especially with today's technology age, when you have to send out e-mails rapidly with only a response back, I was wondering if there's a way, or something that you do in particular, that helps you with that function.
Well Corinne, the Bank of Kazakh* is probably wondering the same thing, because Reuters and the BBC are reporting that someone at the institution misspelled the word bank on its newly released notes, and they were printed and entered into circulation. So, they have a big, embarrassing proofreading problem.

Before we go any further, I do have some tips, but I also have to say that I feel like a fraud for covering this topic, because I make as many errors as everyone else, and sometimes typos slip through. I try so hard, but typos seem to evade⁴ me with impunity⁵. As my father would say, "If you miss one typo, all the others will know," implying that I will forever be an easy mark for sneaky, calculating typos that are out to get me.

So, given my long history with typos, it has become my belief that it's nearly impossible for someone to accurately⁶ proofread¹ their own writing and be consistently successful. Think about it: If I produce 1,000 words a day, and I let 1 typo slip by every week, that's actually a 99.986% success rate. If you think about it in terms of letters rather than words, since most typos happen at the level of letters, that 1 typo a week equates⁷ to about a 99.997% success rate.
Anyway, I know that's kind of a silly example because for native English speakers every letter isn't a typo waiting to happen, and typos are bad and can get you in a lot of trouble; but my point is that even though you should do your very best to catch them, I also think it's important not to beat yourself up too badly when they happen and to realize that human error is inevitable⁸.

The real key to avoiding typos is to have someone else proofread your copy, and this actually also relates to a question that at least one other person asked, which is if I could discuss the poor state of writing on the Internet.

In addition to the fact that most people don't get a good grammar education, I believe a significant reason you see so many typos and errors on web pages is that most web copy never gets reviewed by anyone but the writer before it goes live. By contrast, copy that you see in newspapers and magazines (in addition to being written by professional writers) goes through an extensive editing process. After a writer turns in a story, it's usually reviewed by multiple editors, including the department editor who assigned it, a senior editor, and a copy editor. Of course these editors all have more training in grammar and writing than the average person writing a blog, and even if you consider text on a commercial website, in my experience, these companies tend to run lean editorial departments and may only have one editor looking at copy before it goes live.

So my primary advice on avoiding typos is to have someone else proofread your work. On the other hand, I know this isn't possible for things like e-mail or rushed projects, so here are four proofreading tips I've collected over the years.
1)Read your work backwards**, starting with the last sentence and working your way in reverse order to the beginning. Supposedly this works better than reading through from the beginning because your brain knows what you meant to write, so you tend to skip over errors when you're reading forwards.

2) Read your work out loud.  This forces you to read each word individually and increases the odds⁹ that you'll find a typo. This works quite well for me, and most of the typos that make it into my transcripts¹⁰ seem to be things you wouldn't catch by reading aloud, such as misplaced commas.

3) Always proofread a printed version of your work. I don't know why, but if I try to proofread on a computer monitor I always miss more errors than if I print out a copy and go over it on paper.

4) Give yourself some time. If possible, let your work sit for a while before you proofread it. I'm just speculating here, but it seems to me that if you are able to clear your mind and approach the writing from a fresh perspective, then your brain is more able to focus on the actual words, rather than seeing the words you think you wrote.
 
That's all on proofreading. If anyone has other proofreading tips, please post them in the comment section of the Grammar Girl transcripts at quickanddirtytips.com. I can always use more proofreading tips, and I'm sure everyone else would appreciate it too!

Moving on to another topic, two people have asked me to clarify the pronunciation of the word etcetera. It is pronounced et-cetera, with a t sound, and not ek-cetera as I apparently¹¹ said in a previous show. Two of my dictionaries define etcetera as meaning "and so forth," and it's my understanding that in Latin,  et cetera means "and the rest" or "and the others," and it is written out as two words: et and cetera. Although the use of etcetera in English is obviously adopted from the Latin phrase, you write it out as one word, etcetera, in English. [Note: See my correction and clarification in the comments. GG] You generally use it at the end of a list of items to indicate that the list could contain more items and for some reason you didn't list them. Here's a title that uses etcetera: "Question words: who, what, where, etc." And, etcetera is abbreviated¹² etc. So, I've said etcetera enough times now that I hope everyone is clear on the pronunciation.

That's all.
 

1 proofread   

vt.校正，校对

参考例句：

• I didn't even have the chance to proofread my own report.我甚至没有机会校对自己的报告。
• Before handing in his application to his teacher,he proofread it again.交给老师之前，他又将申请书补正了一遍。

2 proofreading   

校对，校勘( proofread的现在分词 )； 做校对工作； 校读

参考例句：

• Martha, when can you finish proofreading the script? 玛莎，你什么时候可以校对完剧本？ 来自轻松英语会话---联想3000词(上)
• Attention, an important factor in editing and proofreading, affects editing quality directly. 注意力是编校过程中重要的心理因素，直接影响编辑质量。

3 pertinent   

adj.恰当的；贴切的；中肯的；有关的；相干的

参考例句：

• The expert made some pertinent comments on the scheme.那专家对规划提出了一些中肯的意见。
• These should guide him to pertinent questions for further study.这些将有助于他进一步研究有关问题。

4 evade   

vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避

参考例句：

• He tried to evade the embarrassing question.他企图回避这令人难堪的问题。
• You are in charge of the job.How could you evade the issue?你是负责人，你怎么能对这个问题不置可否？

5 impunity   

n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除

参考例句：

• You will not escape with impunity.你不可能逃脱惩罚。
• The impunity what compulsory insurance sets does not include escapement.交强险规定的免责范围不包括逃逸。

6 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

7 equates   

v.认为某事物（与另一事物）相等或相仿( equate的第三人称单数 )；相当于；等于；把（一事物） 和（另一事物）等同看待

参考例句：

• He equates success with material wealth. 他认为成功等同于物质财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This equates to increased and vigor, better sleep and sharper mental acuity. 也就是说可以起到增强活力，改善睡眠，提高心智的作用。 来自互联网

8 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

9 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

10 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

11 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

12 abbreviated   

adj. 简短的，省略的 动词abbreviate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He abbreviated so much that it was hard to understand his article. 他的文章缩写词使用太多，令人费解。
• The United States of America is commonly abbreviated to U.S.A.. 美利坚合众国常被缩略为U.S.A.。