Author Archives: [email protected]

Grammar Giggle – What Kind Of Wall?

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I am posting this to teach proofreading skills NOT as a political statement and I will not tolerate any comments on this blog regarding politics. They will be deleted. If you want to post about politics, there are plenty of places to do that, this just isn’t one of them. Thanks!

This headline recently showed up as “Breaking News” in my email:

 

Board Wall2

Well, I had a feeling it wasn’t a “Board” Wall they were really discussing, so I clicked on the “Read More” and this is what the article headline actually looked like:

Border_Wall

Again, I think this is a product of news outlets moving far too fast to be the first one out with the news and depending too much on spell check. Slow it down, people!

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Confusing Words Of The Week

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Words of the WeekIt’s time for “Confusing Words of the Week” where I take a set of two or three words that get confused and give you definitions and try to give you a memory trick to help you remember when to use which word. If you have words that confuse you, use the Ask PTB tab on the website or send an email to [email protected] and they may appear here soon!

This week’s words are:

  • waiver – the giving up of a claim
  • waver – to hesitate

Memory tips:

  • waiver – I am giving up my interest in something
  • waver – the flag waves when it is blowing (or wavering) in the wind
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Grammar Giggle – Shoppng

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This was in a local business publication. Spelling errors in headlines are the worst. Please make sure you have turned off the “Ignore words in UPPERCASE” option in the Proofing Word Options under File, Options so this kind of error doesn’t occur in your headings!

Shoppng

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Replay Thursday

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Thursday-ReplayIt’s time for a review of recent blog posts just in case you’ve missed them. We call this Replay Thursday. Here are posts from Proof That proofreading blog during the past week.

https://proofthatblog.com/2019/03/08/grammar-giggle-cosmestic/

https://proofthatblog.com/2019/03/08/happy-national-proofreading-day-2/

https://proofthatblog.com/2019/03/11/grammar-giggle-because-of-to-an-injury/

https://proofthatblog.com/2019/03/12/confusing-words-of-the-week-50/

https://proofthatblog.com/2019/03/13/meh-is-proofreading-really-important/

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Meh – Is Proofreading Really Important?

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I always love it when proofreading makes the news. It happened again this week when apparently a law clerk left a comment in an order filed in a California federal district court case. The order has since been amended in the court record to take that comment out, but Justia.com kept the original at https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/casdce/3:2018cv02434/599099/56.

meh

While this notation could have been much worse, it highlights the need to bring things you question to your attorney’s attention. My proofreading tip is as you are nearing the end of the editing process (i.e., you are on version 5 and it is due tomorrow), if there are blanks for references to other documents or things I want to bring to their attention, I highlight it. That way, as you scroll through the document, it stands out that it still needs attention.

Another hint is that when I am actually filing things with the court, I open the document before I attach it to the court filing system and scroll through it to make sure there is no highlighting or other marks that don’t belong, THEN I attach it to the court website. 

Notes to yourself or to your attorney are an important part of making your document the best it can be, but leaving notes to yourself in your final document is just sloppy and could possibly give your opponent information you don’t want them to have.

 

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