Comments on: Proofread like a pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses

By: Designers who Blog: Design, Illustration, Photography, Web, Advertising, Branding …

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 11:52:00 +0000

[...] Proofread like a pro [...]

By: The Golden Pencil: The Freelance Writer’s Resource » Writing How Tos at Problogger

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 14:17:31 +0000

[...] Proofread like a pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses [...]

By: Great writing ideas

Great writing ideas — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 05:27:05 +0000

[...] Proofread like a Pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses – Some very useful hints written by Lori on her blog called Better at English. [...]

By: Trevor

Trevor — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 04:47:32 +0000

This post reminded me of an incident a few years ago when I was a teacher. I typed in a student’s report that she “should check her spalling more carefully.” The computer spell check accepted it and I missed it. (”Spalling” is a term used in sculpture). I had a good laugh and corrected it before the report went home. And I learned a new word by accident.

By: Project Syndicate » Group Wisdom: 9 “How To�? Articles

Project Syndicate » Group Wisdom: 9 “How To�? Articles — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 17:02:09 +0000

[...] As an author, proofreading is vital to a successful article. Better at English shares a few simple steps to catch those pesky grammatical errors your spell checker thinks are fine. [...]

By: Kristonia Ink! » Full List of ProBlogger How To Contest Submissions

Kristonia Ink! » Full List of ProBlogger How To Contest Submissions — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:35:09 +0000

[...] Proofread like a pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses by Lori [...]

By: Chewing Pencils: Helping you make money from drawing cartoons!

Chewing Pencils: Helping you make money from drawing cartoons! — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 13:03:42 +0000

[...] Proofread like a pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses by Lori [...]

By: Ask blushgirl - Romance Advice, Tips and Dating Site Reviews » Blog Archive » Day 3 How-To Articles

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:04:54 +0000

[...] Proofread like a pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses by Lori [...]

By: Lori

Lori — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 06:52:17 +0000

Matt, no shame in using spell checkers — sometimes a “quick ‘n’ dirty check is all you’ve got time for. I’d be lost without mine…

Mark, good luck with your diss (and at your viva!)

Bee, thanks for the additional tip. You can never have too many weapons in your proofing artillery, our brains being so good at seeing what’s “supposed to be” there rather than what’s actually there.

Olivia, I’m guessing you mean the pubic/public example? If so, I’m glad it managed to trick you (well, trick your brain!) — that’s exactly the effect I was going for. Glad the resources were useful.

By: Olivia

Olivia — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 03:10:23 +0000

Great post! I got caught too…had to read and reread it several times until I finally saw what was wrong (but not until you pointed out what it was)! Great resources, too.

By: Graham English

Graham English — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 14:28:12 +0000

lol... My how to is up.

By: Mark Choon » The Biggest, really humongous, ‘How To’ list ever assembled in 4 days!

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 14:15:11 +0000

[...] Proofread like a pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses by Lori [...]

By: Questallia » Problogger’s ‘How to’ Group Writing Project List

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 13:00:42 +0000

[...] Proofread like a pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses by Lori [...]

By: Change your thoughts » Blog Archive » How to posts - loads of them

Change your thoughts » Blog Archive » How to posts - loads of them — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 06:09:43 +0000

[...] Proofread like a pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses by Lori [...]

By: SocialRiots

SocialRiots — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 03:03:40 +0000

Exhaustive Blogging How Tos…

The group writing project at Problogger was a rousing success with 343 entries. Topics written on ranged from fertility issues (several) to web design and manners. The 4 winners were chosen randomly and are no doubt jumping for joy at……

By: Bee

Bee — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:27:47 +0000

Congratulations on being a winner in the problogger how-to's! This is a great post and one that I can relate to - almost too well. I have found the one thing that also helps is to read whatever you have written backwards, that way you focus on the words. I have caught many spelling mistakes this way. My how to on Saving Your Money was proofread and I still found a few mistakes when I read it again after I posted it! I am going to take advantage of the Opera browsers read aloud feature from now on.

By: Working at Home on the Internet

Working at Home on the Internet — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:03:52 +0000

[...] 36. Proofread like a pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses by Lori [...]

By: 33′ Rockers | ProBlogger Winners Announced

33′ Rockers | ProBlogger Winners Announced — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:44:15 +0000

[...] How to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses [...]

By: cjcm

cjcm — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:50:32 +0000

Congratulation for being a winner!
My submission for group project is here .

By: Mark McGuinness

Mark McGuinness — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:22:15 +0000

Thanks Lori, I’ll be proofreading my dissertation next week so no excuses now! And congrats on the problogger prize.

By: Group Writing Project Winners

Group Writing Project Winners — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:02:52 +0000

[...] Lori from Better English wins a weeks complimentary stay at a beach front apartment in Estepona on the Costa del Sol Spain which was kindly donated by New Homes on Nubricks.com. Lori’s post was Proofread like a pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes your spell checker misses. [...]

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 21:04:12 +0000

This is great! I have become so dependent on spell-check. It is sickening! Thanks for participating in the Group Writing Project. My How to is up also.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 21:03:19 +0000

This is great! I have become so dependent on spell-check. It is sickening! Thanks for participating in the Group Writing Project. My How To is up also.

By: Anne Wayman

Anne Wayman — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 19:56:19 +0000

Nifty! Although I pitch reading out loud in my own problogger entry, (http://www.thegoldenpencil.com/2006/09/18/how-to-proofread-your-own-writing/ ) I never thought of having a friend read to me… or my computer either… which is why I blogged witing entries in the contest, including yours. Great idea

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 18:46:16 +0000

I need one of those!

Thanks for the post.

By: Lori

Lori — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 18:39:28 +0000

Thanks for stopping by and for the nice feedback, everyone. It was happy thing to come home to after working a 12-hour day with virtually no breaks (a teacher’s work sooooo is NEVER done). Great story, Lynn!

For the record, text-to-speech proofing is probably overkill for informal writing, but if it’s something that’s going to be published, or where careless mistakes would really make you look bad, it’s totally worth doing. Now if they only made something that could fix the mistakes I make while writing on the whiteboard and talking at the same time.That is waaay harder than it looks.

By: MamaDuck

MamaDuck — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 18:32:53 +0000

LOL great example. That's a great idea for spell-checking, thanks! Our how-to is up as well if you'd like to check it out!!

By: Larry Hendrick

Larry Hendrick — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:38:58 +0000

I love the idea of using speech recognition to read the article back to you. I haven’t thought or used that method, but I am going to try it. Thanks for the great tip!

By: Lynn

Lynn — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:14:44 +0000

This is oh, so very true! It (painfully) reminds me of a time when I was working as an advertising editor and had about 30 things to go out in an hour. Someone brought a proof for a huge billboard to me to proofread and swore it was ready to go, just needed me to sign off. Luckily, I noticed that the word “public” had been misspelled to leave out the “L”!!! Imagine how that would have been if it had gone out without being proofread by one more set of eyes!

This is a great post! Keep up the good work.

BTW — my how to is up as well if you’d like to visit it. Have a great day!

By: Jersey Girl

Jersey Girl — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:16:38 +0000

neat idea, text to speech software for it…i’m in the middle of proofreading a book…i had to tuck it away for awhile, otherwise i didn’t pick up on typos..

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 12:29:13 +0000

Very funny and true to life! I never heard of text-to-speech software–interesting. Nothing beats two sets of eyes, though.

By: Dominic

Dominic — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 07:58:08 +0000

Thanks Lori,
I’m a shocking speller and always seeing spelling mistakes that I make online.
Quite often I find them in my blogs refferal logs when some when someone has mis-spelled a search term and ended up at my site.
Dominic.

By: LearningNerd

LearningNerd — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:25:50 +0000

Hey, great post! I found it through the ProBlogger.net contest. I’m glad to see there are more blogs out there dedicated to improving English. There are way too many typos in this world! Your post will surely help make some of them disappear.

By: How to Assemble the Biggest List of ‘How To’ Blog Posts Ever - Reader Submissions Part III

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:03:14 +0000

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