Spot Our Errors
Proofreading Challenge
Well, we’ve just been updating our website! A little more contemporary than the old one we had for a bit too long, and a considerable improvement on our early attempts back in the days when internet was dialup and you could walk the dog while the site loaded and then get bumped off for no reason you could ever fathom.
Daisy and I started Chapterhouse a quarter of a century ago working from home and hoping our small children didn’t answer the phone before we did! No internet then, but we are still a family business and like everyone else we make errors sometimes.
So if you spot anything wrong with the site please let us know. You will discover if you take one of our courses just how easy it is to stare at the same page and miss obvious mistakes. Often we spot the tiny slips and overlook the big howlers. So have some fun looking, whether or not you join us on a course.
Good luck!
Richard
Well, from a proofreader’s point of view I could only spot one definite error – the double spaceband between ‘from’ and ‘home’ in the first line of the second paragraph.
I would also say that dialup should hyphenated, but technical terms don’t always follow the normal logic, so there is room for debate there and I would be looking for a consistent approach, as with email vs e-mail.
I am sure you will point out some other errors and make me wonder if I’ve come to the right place.
(From a copy-editing point of view, I would suggest some restructuring with shorter sentences, but this was a proofreading challenge.)
Tim
Excellent work here – and showing a proper understanding of the difference between the two skills. Copy-editors have far greater freedom to make changes, though it’s clearly essential to respect the author’s “voice”. Thanks, Tim
Aren’t you also missing an ‘a’ in the first sentence, before ‘bit too long’?
Many thanks Nina! Any more offerings? Surely there are other tiny glitches to be found still buried in the site and just waiting to be unearthed…
Oh yes! Unwanted spaceband or indent before ‘Proofreading Challenge’ (third line).
Possibly: “No internet then,…’ not a clause or phrase? Could be intended to appear informal, but I think it’s the only such example in the letter.
Thanks Timothy – eagle-eyed spotting of an extra letter space! The other suggestion is definitely a copy-editing one, and is something a proofreader would leave well alone.
Hi Daisy and Richard,
Really nice website! Nice, straightforward design, making it easy to navigate around. The initial issue that caught my eye was the title: ‘Everyone makes mistakes! (Even proofreaders.).’ I’m only vaguely familiar with the rules concerning punctuation and brackets but can the term ‘Even proofreaders’ be considered as a full sentence? I would be tempted to omit the full-stop. I suppose it’s also a matter of consistency, ensuring that your content titles, down the right-hand side of the page, all follow the same logic.Bearing that in mind it was probably just done for the sake of the exercise! 🙂
I’m going to have a browse through your courses now! I am new to proofreading/copy-editing and looking to upgrade my skills! I’ll probably be in touch!
Hi Natalia
Thanks for taking a look and for your comment. The short answer to your question is that the words “Even proofreaders.” can be used as we’ve done here as a stand-alone sentence within brackets – there’s no need to add a verb or any other words. Note, too, that there isn’t a second full stop after the closing bracket. If you want guidance on punctuation rules and usage it’s worth looking at Lynn Truss’s great little book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which you’ll find a link to in our Bookshop. She manages to make punctuation interesting and funny! Some authors – from Chaucer onwards – love to use sentences without a verb, and it’s entirely a matter of choice. If I were working for a publisher as a freelance copy-editor or proofreader I’d never try to change the author’s preferred style of writing. It’d only upset the author and would be unlikely to lead to more offers of work.
Does this help? Thanks, Daisy
Should you start sentences with so? I’m very new to this so I apologise if this is copy-editing not proofreading.
Thanks for taking a look at our new website. Starting sentences with words such as “so” is perfectly acceptable, yes. So a proofreader should never attempt to alter this – it’d upset the author! And even a copy-editor should really sit very firmly on any desire to change the author’s voice in this way. The same applies with sentences without a verb or beginning with a conjunction, as we’ve done here. If you’re in doubt take a look at Fowler’s Modern English Usage. (You’ll find a link to it in our Bookshop section.)
Hello.
I would suggest a hyphen for “proof-reading”; omit the full stop within the brackets; insert a comma after “one” in the second sentence and add “which” at the beginning of the clause.
Furthermore, change the phrase “…site loaded and then get bumped ” to “site loaded, being bumped…”.
Suggest commas after the word “else” in second paragraph and after “so” in third paragraph. “That” needs added after “discover” in second sentence.
Finally, ” fun looking” needs hyphenated and you could argue about the comma after “whether”.
The style is conversational and should be left alone.
Hello Gerry
Thanks for taking the time for looking through this. I’m afraid that most of your suggestions fall within the realm of quite heavy editing – for instance, the publisher will already have decided on whether or not to hyphenate proofreader and proofreading, so there’s no need for it to be queried at this late stage in the publishing process.
A couple of points are worth mentioning, as your suggestions would add errors, however. The words “Even proofreaders” are a complete sentence set within brackets and therefore definitely need a full stop. “(Even proofreaders.)” The words “fun looking” would only need to be hyphenated if they were placed in front of a noun, as in “the fun-looking kitten was running round in circles”. If you want to read a bit more about English language, we recommend Fowler’s Modern English Usage (take a look in the bookshop section of our website).
Thanks again for your comment.
Daisy
If you enjoyed that brain-teaser, have a go at our new punctuation challenge.
I can’t see anything definitely wrong at the moment. I think I have missed something. However I think there should be a dash at either end of, or brackets enclosing “and you could walk the dog while the site loaded”, because when I first read it I thought I was in danger of being bumped off while walking the dog, but on re-reading it I realised the bumping off was to do with the internet. So I think some punctuation is missing or some editing needs to be done.
I think if I were editing this post, I’d tend to agree with you and suggest the punctuation be changed (maybe an Oxford comma would help in this sentence). As a proofreader I’d probably leave it as it is, while having a chuckle about the possibility of being “bumped off” in this way. Have a look at our latest posts, and have fun with them.