Common Errors
Discover a wealth of insights on common writing errors and how to avoid them. These articles break down frequent mistakes in grammar, punctuation, and style, offering practical tips to elevate the quality of your writing. Perfect for anyone striving for clarity and precision in their communication.
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Editing Tips: How to Punctuate Dates
Editing Tips: How to Punctuate Dates
Last Updated Jul 09, 2020
There are various ways to punctuate dates, and this can pose a challenge for proofreaders. When should you correct punctuation in dates in a document? And how does punctuating dates vary in different situations? In this post, we answer your punctuation questions. Punctuating Numerical Date Formats Commas Between Days and Years in Dates The US […]
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What to Do with the Singular They
What to Do with the Singular They
Last Updated Apr 05, 2020
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What to Do with Tentative Language
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Word Choice: Similar Words or Similar Meanings?
Last Updated Mar 20, 2019
Our rich, annoying language has many words whose meanings are subtly distinct. It also has many words with similar spellings. Sometimes the two intersect and we get a double whammy of confusion. Today, we look at two pairs of words we suspect are trying to catch us out. The first is recur and reoccur, which […]
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How to Proofread Negative Prefixes in English
Last Updated Aug 07, 2018
English is a magpie language. It picks up shiny words wherever it can, and it doesn’t care how disorganised its rules become in the process. Or should that be ‘unorganised’? Take prefixes, for instance. We have de-, dis-, un-, and in-, all of which signify that something isn’t the case. And they’re not the only […]
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Capitalisation: Compass Points and Titles
Last Updated Jul 02, 2018
In our time training proofreaders, we’ve noticed that the subtleties of capitalisation can sometimes confuse even the best students. So, today, we’re going to look at two tricky capitalisation issues that might trip you up: compass points and titles. Compass Points and Directions It is a common misconception that the four compass directions should always […]
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How Commas Pull Their Weight
Last Updated Mar 09, 2018
In previous posts, we’ve discussed how proofreaders need to be aware of meaning when working on a document. And it’s not only word choice that affects meaning: punctuation can also change a sentence. In this post, then, we look at a few things you can do with commas. Direct Address A comma is necessary to […]
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Top 3 Justifications for Sentence Fragments
Last Updated Mar 01, 2018
This post is very. Let that sink in for a moment. Deep, isn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s also poor grammar. As proofreaders, we know that incomplete sentences are usually unacceptable. But there are circumstances in which a partial sentence might make sense. Thus, here are our top three reasons to leave sentence fragments be. 1. For […]
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All Together Or Altogether?
Last Updated Feb 21, 2018
The classic movie Airplane! plays on the similarity between the terms all together and altogether. In that film, the protagonist discovers that pressing the autopilot button is counterproductive. But when he explains this and uses the word altogether to mean entirely, his companions respond by echoing his words all together. And, lo, we immediately see […]
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Transatlantic Differences: 3 Tips on UK vs. US Punctuation
Transatlantic Differences: 3 Tips on UK vs. US Punctuation
Last Updated Feb 06, 2018
America and the UK have been cultural cousins for some time. For better or for worse, they therefore bear some striking resemblances, such as sharing a language. But there are some important differences in how each country uses English. The differences between UK and US spelling (e.g. organise vs. organize) and word usage (e.g. trousers […]
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Unruly Prefixes: Pre and Pro
Unruly Prefixes: Pre and Pro
Last Updated Jan 23, 2018
Prefixes. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t communicate without ‘em. Can’t even say prefixes without ‘em. And we can see both how essential and how tricky they are by looking at the words prescribe and proscribe. First, though, some preliminaries. Prefixes for Beginners If you’re pursuing a career in proofreading, you probably know a thing or […]
