Category Archives: proofreading

Grammar Giggle Week – Day 1

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Since I will be getting ready for and attending my NALS Conference here in the Phoenix area, this will be Grammar Giggle week! Today’s Grammar Giggle is from my local news station. Since I didn’t care enough about this story to wait for it, I’m not positive that the first word is supposed to be “Is,” but it doesn’t make any sense the way it is here.

biebs2

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Grammar Giggle – It’s

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This is a very common error I see. The apostrophe here is for a contraction. It’s is a contraction for “It is.” But that doesn’t fit in the restaurant’s advertisement. “Its” is the possessive form of the pronoun “it.”

its

 

 

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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:

  • trial – examination; experiment; hardship
    • They were busy getting ready for the trial.
  • trail – a path
    • She took the trail up to the to top of the hill.

Memory tips:

This is a pair of words that I think is more misspelled than used incorrectly. But it is something that needs to be checked before the document is finalized.

  • trial – I am in trial
  • trail – adventure is at the end of the trail
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Six Years!

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Six years ago today, I posted my first Proof That blog post. Now, 685 posts, over 100,000 views, 80,000 visitors, and amazing support to continue, I am deeply humbled and happy that I overcame all the “what ifs” in the time before that first post. I haven’t always kept to my posting schedule, but I truly appreciate the readers who send me material and who stop to tell me that my blog makes a difference. That, after all, is my goal here. So thank you to my readers for taking the time to read the posts, send me material, and let me know that I am doing something worthwhile. It makes all the difference. Here’s to many more years of Proof That proofreading blog!

PTB 6th Anniv

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Confusing Words of the Week

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It’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!

Words of the Week

This week’s words are:

theirs – possessive form of they; used when a noun does not follow

  • The red car was theirs.

there’s – contraction of there is or there are

  • There’s [there is] no doubt that she is the best person for the job.

Memory tips:

  • theirs – belonging to them
  • there’s – apostrophe represents missing letter (in this case the i) for there is 
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Grammar Giggle – Inconcince

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A friend sent this to me after she saw it at a restaurant. It’s really a shame that dictionaries are not used when they are so easily available on the cell phones most people carry like they’re an appendage. It’s easy to check on something that you might not be sure of.

Inconcince

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