Oh my… I read a blog post today that told a really nice story, but the agent who wrote it really needed to proofread. If she didn’t know how to spell, she needed someone to proofread for her.
Here are the stop signs she placed in her copy:
- “She past away two months ago..”
- “…try to decide what’s getting pack and what is getting pitched.”
- “Within 24 hours they interview a few investors, and chose…”
- “They are on there way back home to…”
The post was also filled with sentence fragments – which are OK some of the time, because that’s the way we speak. The lack of commas was a different story. That lack made everything run together, so as a reader I had to backtrack to stay with the meaning.
The reason for writing or speaking is to communicate. When you place stop signs in the copy with misspelled or misused words, or when you forget to use commas so the words all run together, that communication fails.
So remember: Proofread. Then proofread again. And if you aren’t sure about spelling and word usage, enlist help from someone who is sure.
