Janice M Cali
Proofreading, Damn!
Why We Proofread
Proofreading, I'm really good at it, except when it's something I wrote, then I suck at it. You see I type really fast, I think reasonably fast, OK, very fast, and I can't type as fast as I think, usually. So what happens? I write what I'm thinking, even when composing a piece of work that is structured and not off the top of my head, I leave words out, sometimes sentences, or just phrases. Sometimes, when I stop to consider what I've written I retype the word preceding the one I just typed, this is because my mind knows what I meant to write and my eyes see what my mind says is supposed to be there.
Did you know that almost everyone does this? Yup, they do, not everyone, but most people work like this, that is why when I was a tech writer my boss told me to proofread by starting at the end of a paragraph or page and read backward. This worked beautifully for spelling, usually (it was the days before spell checker, and yes they did have tech writers even way back then), but not always. What it didn't work for was the missing of sentences, or phrases, or single words.
Tonight I reread one of my blogs on food and found too many mistakes to believe, and I had proofread it, really I did, I always do before I post a blog, honest, I wouldn't lie to you about this. I can't believe that I could miss so many mistakes, missing words, missing phrases and duplicate words, just as described above. It's shameful. I'm going to have to write an apology to my readers of that blog, and if you read this blog, please accept my apologies for the mistakes I've missed on any of these posts.
I'm going to try to find a proofreader, but not an editor, not the same thing, I don't want the contents messed with in anyway on this blog, it is basically my place to vent, or more accurately where I can rant, rave and basically say what's on my mind. I probably should have called this blog something like "What's on my Mind" or "Mind Wanderings" but Rantings of the Unsane works too. And today I'm reasonable sane, isn't that wonderful?
One more thing, in case you're new to this blog please be aware that by airing my difficulties with my mind on a public blog I hope that someone will see him or her self, realize that they aren't alone and that you can be a little less than sane and still function, get help, and not be ashamed of your problems. If you hadn't figured that out, those of you who are regular readers, now you know why I'm so open about what goes on in my mind.
Enough said for now. Tomorrow, about the spelling of Sequin Texas and why it should be spelled the way I spell it but isn't, or something like that. Later y'all.
Competition Queen