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The Impotence of Proofreading

dailywritingtips.com — FTA: "Its a fact that a spell checker will not catch all the mistakes on your text. So how do you solve this problem? Proofreading, of coarse!"

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  • stokelake, on 10/10/2007, -14/+9I need to empoly a proforeader as my speleing is rushhish
    • Fungo, on 10/10/2007, -3/+9Know ewe don't. I think you're spelling is fine. In fact, you're righting is probably better then mine. I had to spellcheck my hole post, and here are the corrections.
      • Zinite, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5K we get it, putting the wrong word is funny.
    • fubes2000, on 10/10/2007, -0/+21Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
    • GerryBot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Just wasted 5 minutes reading that, and it wasn't even funny.
      • OwdenBowden, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Agree. The could have provided funny examples.
      • GonzoLiga, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Dugg up for the funny Digg title.
    • stacky, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Eye half a spelling chequer
      It came with my pea sea
      It plainly marques four my revue
      Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
      Eye strike a key and type a word
      And weight four it two say
      Weather eye am wrong oar write
      It shows me strait a weigh.
      As soon as a mist ache is maid
      It nose bee fore two long
      And eye can put the error rite
      Its rare lea ever wrong.
      Eye have run this poem threw it
      I am shore your pleased two no
      Its letter perfect awl the weigh
      My chequer tolled me sew.


      Couldn't find a source for that, but it wasn't me.
    • donwilson2, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Nicely done with the "of coarse".
  • meew, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13sharp article :)
    it takes time to find the errors, because while reading you tend to correct them... so take your time to read it carefully =)
    • HUKI365, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6In fact, don't it yourself at all. Get someone else to do so.
  • fairyfish, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4yes, proofreading is very important, special for Chinese, there is no spell checker.
  • drunkentoad, on 10/10/2007, -2/+12haha, great title
    luckily 7/10 diggers use viagra
    • Azimuth1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Wow, I didn't even notice that until I read your comment.
  • dvsbastard, on 10/10/2007, -1/+74Proofreading is a waist of time.

    Berried.
  • ElectricSheep7, on 10/10/2007, -8/+29Short, obvious and pointless article. Burried for dumb-ass picture of guy.
    • Ajjah, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3Did you, and all the people that dugg you're comment... We'll, never mind...
      • fmorel90, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I just dugg the comment cause ElectricSheep7 had a good point, but I still dugg the story.
      • fmorel90, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I just dugg the comment cause ElectricSheep7 had a good point, but I still dugg the story.
  • mt066, on 10/10/2007, -3/+4If someone posted that as a digg comment, the spelling nazis would explode
  • AlphaEta, on 10/10/2007, -3/+18I hate to be the village A-hole, but couldn't this article have been summed up in one phrase: Don't trust your spell checker.

    Proofread your work... no *****!
  • swordedge, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7I'd be happy if more people actually USED a spell checker. Never mind the proof reading. And the comments count 12 errors in that article.
    • tony4moroney, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1You're an embarrassment and so are all the pretentious grammar-nazi's that dugg this comment up without realizing the article submitter intentionally misspelled words in the nature of the topic of proof-reading.
  • andrewcsayer, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5I poof read every siingle one of my blog pots
    • lonegeek, on 10/10/2007, -12/+3Obviously not digg comments though. =D
    • WaterDragon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1You should poof reed the double words to.
  • rwallen, on 10/10/2007, -8/+8What a stupid article. I was hoping for some picture of a screwed up ad or something, not an article that simply says "proofread your work".
    Buried for being the lamest article I've seen on digg today.
    • loganhuddleston, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1agreed.
    • zweben, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Stupid yes, but I'm sorta glad it's on the front page; anything that will get people to stop posting with the spelling skills of a 3rd grader is fine by me.
    • Ajjah, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7It's more stunningly witty than you can comprehend. Obviously.
      • iDragonFly, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Wit is the barometer of intelligence.
  • bluebirdgm, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4It's funnier when Taylor Mali does this bit: http://youtube.com/watch?v=FjhOBiSk8Gg
    • MrZop, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I was only interested in this story cause i thought it was a Taylor Mali article.

      'Poems From The Like Free Zone' is a great spoken word album that any grammar-geek should get.
    • kevanloy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I left a comment on the post about this. He stole the name for the post from Mali – he should be given credit.
  • fearlessfx, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1dugg because misspelling makes me impotent.
  • zyklon, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Wow, I really agree that most people need help with they're English grammar. Its a real problem now a days I've noticed in bogs, My space and Face book.
  • Limezor, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Yeah, MS Word isn't as great as we thought it was...
  • milkmage, on 10/10/2007, -5/+1proof your writing by reading backwards... backwards reading by writing your proof
    you catch more errors that way.
    • WaterDragon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Why not just write it backwards? Then you will catch the errors when reading it forward.
  • timbellomo, on 10/10/2007, -16/+2"of coarse"?!!! the article needs to be proofread
    • dvsbastard, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8That is the only typo you noticed?!

      I think the ironic humour has been missed on a lot of people here...
    • Drwreck, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0It's really depressing to see how many people comment on/bury an article without even reading it. Welcome to Digg?
    • timbellomo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1mea culpa.

      I started reading it, but decided that it was a waste of time.
  • dertykevin, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0What middle school English teacher hasn't already told us this? Anyone with a 5th grade education should know spell check doesn't proofread your paper for you.

    A better tip is to read your paper backwards.
  • ShaunOlsen, on 10/10/2007, -6/+2BRUIED.
  • bytecolor, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1The Linux Cookbook has a solution or two.
  • MrKas, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1i have digged this storey
  • Saiing, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10The tragic thing about this article, is that the people who need it most will:

    a) Not even understand the joke in the title, and/or
    b) Consider it boring and skim over it.

    I actually used to work as a professional proofreader for a translation company. The quality of writing I see everyday on the 'net makes me want to weep.
    • dertykevin, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Anyone can access the 'net. There is no age limit and most parents are encourgaing their childern to explore the interenet. Don't surf the web thinking everything you are going to read will have perfect grammar.
    • Saiing, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Before anyone points it out, there's a simple and deliberate mistake in my above comment. Kudos if you can spot it.
    • pdieten, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0"every day"
    • iDragonFly, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1'net makes me want to weep.
    • Nonplussed, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0As a copy editor, I wholeheartedly agree. I've stopped assessing the quality of the writing because the usage/grammar/spelling is enough to make me puke.

      Want to rite real good? Read.
  • CaptainSponge, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4It's like nails on a blackboard when someone spells your instead of you're...
  • MrKas, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14I can have to blaim lolcats
  • gtsai85, on 10/10/2007, -7/+0your title is spelled wrong, idiot.
    • Rabid_Llama, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4hahaha, a spirited but pretty blatant troll, swing and a miss
  • nugx, on 10/10/2007, -6/+1I think you are missing an 'R' otherwise, this is the most contradictory subject ever.
    • LincolnA, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6First of all, you obviously don't get the joke.
      Second, the correction requires more than adding an 'R'...

      Nice try, though.
  • AttackingHobo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Well, actually, Office 2007 tells me when my grammar is incorrect...

    I is afraids.
  • Rozza, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1it helps if you say things aloud. trust me, it really deos!
  • macguy815, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Man if only apple could incorporate a system wide grammar check like the do for spelling.
  • chochazel, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I only came here cause I wanted to see if anyone totally missed the point of the text and just thought it was a really short and obvious article, or just found one spelling mistake and thought the author was an idiot and they were really clever.
    I was expecting one or two, but I can't believe the number of people who have commented who seem to fall into one of these two categories.
    This place is dumbing down. We need more articles that ignorant blustering people will miss the point of and bury. Then relink the bury button to a "ban me forever" button.
    That'll sort them.
  • neko, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Your dumb if you misspell, Every one knows a spellchecker can run threw you're document and tell you were you're errors where

    (*ouch*.. it pained me writing that..)
  • richgustavson, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Corny.
  • ltkerr0r, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I noticed this yesterday when looking up info on the movie "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry". I found a lot of sites spelling it "I KNOW Pronounce You Chuck and Larry". " A "know pronounce you" google search gets 12,800 results. Even VH1 got it wrong
  • Caleb83, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3As someone who reads a lot of books, I find it frustrating to come across a misspelling in a book. In a newspaper or other daily publications I can overlook, because you're doing that job a lot, errors are bound to come through. But there's no excuse for a book to have such errors. Here's one instance: "He was drifting father and farther away" Unacceptable. This not only interrupts the flow of the narrative, but it makes it seem like the book was rushed. Not to mention it doesn't make the author look like a genius, either.
    • brindon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I believe spelling errors should result in some sort of permanent incarceration, or perhaps execution. Although some may believe this excessive, the pain and suffering it causes readers compels a harsh penalty.
    • mcapplbee, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I feel your pain Caleb. I am being forced to read Eragon for a class. It's painful.
  • brindon, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1Penis?
    • WaterDragon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1As in "The red PEN IS your friend. "
  • MasterThief117, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2dugg for "general pubic"
  • Zephistage, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I've got this weird sort of anal-retentive thing where I immediately pause reading and read back over a word when I see a misspelling. I've been known to point out lots of spelling errors on forums. A spelling or grammatical error to me is like a glitch. It'll seriously make the reading center of my brain hang, so to speak.
  • Xspire, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4LOL, I don't know if it is kind of geeky of me or what, but the whole time I was reading that I was smiling. That was funny.
    • iDragonFly, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Same here, except I was laughing the whole time.
      I can't image anyone going through that article without finding the humor.
  • 2oonhed, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2Then there was brotha #1 walkin down tha street all dressed up in a suit & tie.
    Brotha #2 sees him and says, "What choo doin all dress up in that suit & tie?'
    Brotha #1 says, "Ah is goin to get me a VASECTOMY!"
    Brotha #2 says, "Why you need a suit & tie fo THAT!"
    Brotha #1 says, Well, If ah is goin to BE impotant ah gots to LOOK impotant!
  • Nok1, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6Anyone else twitch nervously at his grammatical typos, even though they were very carefully and purposefully placed?
  • Arcotik, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1The picture of the guy with glasses was too distracting. Couldn't read it. Buried for distractions.
    • iDragonFly, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Were you born without a sense of humor, or did you lose it on the way here?
  • chenkersthecat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Don't they cover this ***** in elementary school?
  • narcosis219, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1pRofredding/ who teh hell dos that???/ rtarded.
  • zenlunatic, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Lame comments... clippy, please pierce my heart with either of your ends, Steve Irwin style.
  • KraziLogicz, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Read a Book

    http://digg.com/videos/educational/Read_A_Book_7
  • ragonamuffin, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1"Their you go my friend, and take this advice seriously. After all, you don’t want to look dumb in front of the general pubic!" Someone needs to proofread themselves, typically "their you go" is spelled "there you go" thanks to google for this one.

    Google is my proofreader!

    dugg down for being hypocritical, and the goofy dude on the page.
  • atralyx, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4So many people whining over "your/you're" What about every one now saying "addicting" ....addictive has always been the correct word and suddenly its addicting ???? , you is now U and are is now R , and the many many ways to say someone is bested or has won or is better in some way or ALL generalized in the word owned ........or worse yet pwned , i swear every one born from the mid 80's on were born with attention deficit disorder Now commence "correcting" me and digging me down , maybe at least 1 person will get my point
    • WaterDragon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I got your point....but why you call me a bested? You're a bested!

      lmao
    • mcapplbee, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0"Addicting" is a word. Dictionary, please.
  • Richandler, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4The whole article is a joke. Digg isn't college.
  • WaterDragon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Also, nowadays many people use non-existent words, or try to make up new ones with no real meaning other than the opinions attached to them.
    e.g. There's no such word as anorexic. The proper word for one afflicted with anorexia is 'anorectic.'

    And there's no such thing as a 'homophobe.' No such word! It is not any legitimate kind of 'phobia', but just a pathetic, opinionated, made-up word to justify certain views..
    • mcapplbee, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Dictionary, PLEASE. The words you cited do indeed exist. If you did refer to a dictionary, please don't use your 1970's Webster's college edition.
      The English language does change.
  • neondiet, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3
    Proof reading isn't infallible. Sometimes we go a little word blind and still miss mistakes we made first time round. My advise is, if you're going to proof read something you've just written, temporarily change the font, colour or size; or any combination of those so it looks visibly different from what you've just written. You'll be less likely to skip over mistakes. Alternatively, file it and come back to it 30 minutes later when you've had a chance to do something else and give your brain a change of focus.


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