Comments on: Why it’s so difficult to edit your own work

By: saffster

saffster — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:09:49 +0000

I am reading Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files series and whoever did his proofreading apparently did just what you talked about. In each book, I have found several mistakes over and over again. Usually they are just simple mispellings, like shielf instead of shield, or using they in the sentence when it was supposed to be the.

By: Gabriele

Gabriele — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:35:32 +0000

I’m synaesthetic, so I do catch some of my typos because the word has the wrong colour-aura, if that makes sense. But there are still those I miss because the letters that get switched around or mistakenly replaced are in the same spectrum and in the middle of the word. Or even my synaesthetic brain sees things that ain’t there. *grin*

By: jenosopher

jenosopher — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 05:28:16 +0000

It’s especially easy to make silly mistakes in emails (I send a lot of them during my work day). And of course, my electronic signature says “Editor” right there under the message. The only comfort is that I usually never know.

But you know what frustrates me even more than errant typos? I spend all day improving other people’s writing… and yet, that doesn’t automatically make ME a brilliant writer.

By: Slushmaster

Slushmaster — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 01:31:34 +0000

Interesting stuff. Thanks for posting.

By: Harold

Harold — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 22:21:02 +0000

I’ve found that reading things backwards (backward? OH GOD NO I’M GONNA GET THAT WRONG HELP HELP) helps me to spot typos in my own writing, something like looking at a familiar scene sideways or upside-down (I have a very flexible neck) to look for things that you know are there but you just can’t see. Of course, this doesn’t help with other sorts of errors.

I’m being forced to proofread my typing a lot more closely at work since this keyboard has developed a tendency to drop the letters e, a, and s and the number 2, and to duplicate the letter t.

By: Archangel Beth

Archangel Beth — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:58:16 +0000

Dear me! That’s both cool — because I know that I read what should be there, yup — and spooky, in that the eyechart thing worked out that way.

I suppose I should be glad I’ve not memorized the eyechart yet.

By: Janni

Janni — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:45:48 +0000

When I was an in-house publications editor, I would always be relieved when a piece was printed and I found the mistake–because I knew there’d be one, and if I’d found it, and it wasn’t too awful, at least that was over with.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:44:16 +0000

There are interesting emails floating around where the first and last letters of the words are accurate but the rest are scrambled. Surprisingly, it is easy to read the sentences. After only a few lines most people can read the words at roughly normal speed. The brain is amazing in what it can do.

Of course it makes it difficult for writers as well, I have been experimenting with text-to-speech software. The actual pronunciation is horrible of course but the computer does not auto-correct anything. With a little practice it is easy to spot the missing comma or incorrect word. I recommend giving it a try.

By: Robert Legault

Robert Legault — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:43:59 +0000

I always say that the one thing I have trouble proofreading is my own writing. And my frequently typo-riddled postings on LJ should be ample evidence of that. Nowadays, when I do a good bit of editing on-screen at magazines, I find I have to be extra careful when I enter any new copy, even a few words. It keeps me on my toes.

Iâ€™ve had people say that they hate to write me because theyâ€™re worried about making mistakes.

The line I sometimes use when writers tell me this is, “Just relax. It’s like taking your clothes off in front of the doctor. I’ve seen it all.”

By: Mazzie

Mazzie — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:30:31 +0000

My favorite personal gaffe as an editor was when I was working at NASA. I took a moment to pat myself on the back after I’d unscrambled some dense tenchnical jargon-y language and made it readable and easy to understand. In an email I sent to a friend about it, I wrote, “brilliants lends itself to clarity.”

*facepalm*