Category Archives: legal proofreading

I saw this in a catalog I received. While I would definitely use the second one for wine, since the page before uses the same description on a typical wine glass, I’m just saying that someone missed this in the review. When you’re proofreading, you need to read everything in that document (or catalog) as a whole paying attention to whether the photos go with the words, whether all the words are spelled correctly, and whether it all makes sense. I’m bringing it up today just to make you laugh. I know mistakes happen (goodness knows I’ve made more than my fair share), but sometimes all we can do is laugh and learn. And perhaps we’ll start a new trend with a new kind of wine glass!

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A friend sent this one to me and it recently appeared on Reddit, but I thought it was interesting to show that even if everything is spelled correctly, sometimes placement is an issue. You need to try to look at your writing as a whole to make sure that all the parts of it are correct.

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This was in a local breaking news post I received. I initially caught the “best to their ability” error–which should be “to the best of their ability”–and noticed that the last part of the last sentence could be rewritten to make much more sense. Something like “It is unclear if there were any other injuries to occupants in the area.” When you are proofreading for someone, don’t be afraid to change the language to make what they’re trying to say more clear. But please don’t just change it without letting them know what you changed. There are two reasons for this: (1) it could be a little learning lesson for them on how to word something so others will understand and (2) your edit may not be right and there may be a reason it was worded that way. Particularly in the legal field, I always redline my suggested changes to the documents I proofread. I know they are tired of seeing me delete commas, but there could be a method behind their madness and I could screw the whole thing up if I just made the changes without letting them know they are my suggestions. Happy proofing!

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This was a picture in a Facebook group I’m in that made me stop and look again. It gives me the opportunity to discuss the difference between less and fewer. Less is something that can’t necessarily be counted such as “Jane wished there was less hate in the world.” Fewer, on the other hand, is typically something you can count, such as calories and the number of items you are putting on the grocery belt. Check out a helpful blog post here. For now, at least this company is consistent in their error, but it really should be “fewer” in both instances.

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