Meet Me In Little Rock!

I’m going to be in Little Rock, Arkansas, September 23-28 for the NALS conference. If you are a Proof That blog reader and are already in the Little Rock area, or if you are also attending the NALS conference, let me know if you are interested in meeting up with other Proof That blog readers. I would love to meet my biggest supporters IRL! If you will be in Little Rock during that time, let me know what day works for you and we’ll try to find a good time. I will be busy with seminars and conference events but would love to set aside some time to meet you. Email [email protected] and we’ll try to set something up!

Confusing Words Of The Week

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!

This week’s words are a different play on words and a lesson on language. A friend sent this photo to me asking if “artefacts” was correct. I told her I didn’t think it was and would use it for Confusing Words of the Week. Well, once I started researching both “artifacts” and “artefacts,” I discovered–once again–that British English is sometimes just slightly different from American English. A lot of the time it is just one letter different. So although confusing, “artifacts” and “artefacts” both mean ” a usually simple object (such as a tool or ornament) showing human workmanship or modification as distinguished from a natural object; something characteristic of or resulting from a particular human institution, period, trend, or individual.”

Memory tips:

This week’s memory tip is to remember if you are in America, spell it “artifacts,” and if you are in Great Britain, spell it “artefacts.” And be consistent if you are proofreading something that talks about “artifacts/artefacts” depending on your location and your audience.

Grammar Giggle – Happy Independence Day!

I received this email this week from a local restaurant. Email subjects are just as important as the email itself. It’s obvious they know HOW to spell “independence,” but it’s also obvious they didn’t check it before hitting send.

Meh – Is Proofreading Really Important?

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.

 

Replay Thursday

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 and 60 Is The New 60 blog during the past week.

Grammar Giggle – Preapre

Grammar Giggle – Cricles

Confusing Words of the Week

Knocking The Shout Out Of You