Blogger: Mary Keeley
Location: Books & Such Midwest Office, IL
How many errors do you find, in this sentence; both puntuation, grammer, and spelling errors.
A lot of hard work goes into preparing a stellar proposal for submission. You need to come up with the perfect wording for your hook, a compelling short description, the best choices for your list of competing books, and all those other details that will communicate the worthiness of your manuscript and your knowledge of the industry. Whew! You feel brain-dead by the time it’s complete.
But you’re not done yet. Not until you have given your proposal a thorough proofreading. You can produce the most impressive content, but grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors can betray you. Agents and editors will see persistent errors as a poor reflection of your professional writing ability. When I read a proposal that is fairly interesting in content, if the writer did a quick proofread, it could make the difference between my continuing to review it or deciding to decline the project.
Don’t rely on your computer’s spell check. Arm yourself with a recent edition of a good grammar book. Also include the 16th edition of Chicago Manual of Style, which was published last August. There are numerous changes since the 15th edition. Familiarizing yourself with these resources will communicate that you are up-to-date and professional.
If you don’t feel confident, hire a professional proofreader to do the work for you. Even if you do feel proficient, it is worth having another set of eyes review it. Your proposal represents your one chance with an agent or an editor. It must be a sampling of your publication-ready book. The investment of adequate time and money spent for the final proofread will either add icing to the cake or reveal that it’s under-done and in need of additional “baking” before an agent will take a serious look.
When have you been surprised by what a proofreader found in your proposal or manuscript? What habitual errors do you have to watch out for that you can alert the rest of us to? Oh, and how many errors did you find in my opening sentence? (Don’t tell us what they are or it will spoil the fun for others!)
The biggest gotcha for me is when I revise a grammatically-correct sentence and lose sight of how the changes affect the surrounding words. I often don’t catch these issues until after numerous proofreads. I also have to be diligent with those tricky words that are used as nouns when compounded or hyphenated but used as verbs when split (i.e. foul-up vs foul up, pickup vs pick up).
I glean grammar checklists from other authors and websites to compile an extensive personal checklist that I can use against my manuscript.
I found 6 errors in the opening sentence, but it has some other issues and could use a complete rewrite. 🙂
Another superb post, Mary. Proofreading is so important. I noticed in yesterday’s comment that I had a typo. 🙁
Last week, I submitted a new chapter of my WIP to my critique group. For some reason, I kept switching the sex of the horse as the owner talked about it. In one sentence the horse was male, but then suddenly the horse was female. I must have read that chapter 3 times and never picked up on it.
I found four errors. Did I mention I don’t like quizzes? 🙂 Grin!
I had a mutli-published author proofread my manuscript. I repeated the same two mistakes throughout. Often times, once you see the error, you can go through the entire body of work and fix it. It just takes someone else pointing it out.
If you check out editor Nick Harrison’s blog, he has a list of over used mannerisms. Using find and replace, you can really give your book an overhaul.
Thanks, Mary.
I counted eleven. I actually enjoy proofreading, and now I find myself proofreading and critiquing almost everything I read. However, with my own writing, I can miss a “there” instead of “their”, or can leave words out, and when I proofread again, my brain includes the word I left out. I can also be a bit dyslexic. Let’s just say I have to proofread many times to be almost sure I got everything. My mom-in-law has her masters in education, so she is a great resource as well. In the next few weeks, I’ll be researching great proposals, so thanks for the advice in references. 🙂
My dad set type for the newspaper, night shift, for thirty years, plus typesetting jobs at other print shops before WW2. One of his great joys was to catch errors the proof-readers let through. He might say the next day, “Caught four proof-reader errors last night,” or “You wouldn’t believe what those editors let through.” He told me his main book for spelling was a little volume titled “Where The Hyphen?” I assume he gave it away when he retired. Sure would have liked to have had that.
How many errors? At least seven. Eight, if you count the unnecessarily duplicated word.
The stone I habitually stumble on is “it.” “It” crops up everywhere, but “it” always stands for something more interesting than a simple nondescript pronoun.
Mary, I’m telling on myself. My two biggest culprits are lie and lay, and punctuation inside quotes. I had a professor in college with a great cure for grammatical errors. She docked us an entire grade if more than 3 errors were found in an assigned project! Great motivator at the time! Now,many years later, I utilize a reader/critique partner who happens to be a teacher by profession. Who says life doesn’t go full circle?
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Oh, I believe I found six errors. : )
For other writers, I would underscore your sentence, “Even if you do feel proficient, it is worth having another set of eyes review it.” Why? Because I was confident. After all, I once worked for five years as a textbook editor. However, at least once in my life I wanted to hire a pro to scrutinize one of my manuscripts so that I could see my writing though an objective editor’s eyes, and learn from it. So, I sent my current suspense novel to Dr. Dennis Hensley. Not only did he spot numerous errors (many of which I understood were errors, but they had still managed to slip past me), but he also pointed out instances of closely repeated words and stylistic weakness that made me shake my head and wonder how I had missed them.
The bottom line: a little confidence is helpful, but too much can hurt you–or at least your manuscript. Fresh, objective eyes will see what’s actually on the page, not what you believe is there. I’m still working through my revision in hopes of ratcheting the quality of my story a few notches higher.
Very appropriate topic, Mary. Thanks!
I found six errors – maybe seven (though in all honesty, the first time I went through, I only spotted five – but I ALWAYS look more than once!).
I am a proofreading JUNKIE! Proofing errors drive me crazy. I would LOVE to correct every one I see – and I pull hair out on occasion when I can’t.
I used to proofread people’s papers on study breaks in college when I lived in the dorms – it helped me relax (yeah, I’m loco).
I would say my worst is subject-verb agreement.
My (least) favorite mistake: leaving out the “l” in public in a headline about an upcoming public hearing.
No one has let me forget that one.
I was counting possible double spaces in the first sentence, but I think that may just how it looks. Minus those, I do get six. 🙂 Cynthia, I get in trouble with lie and lay too.
I find that I sometimes leave off a needed “s” at end of a plural word as I type. Or leave out “has” or “a/an” – usually because my mind is moving way faster than my fingers will. I’m thankful for proofreading and critique partners!
Uh oh. I only found six errors in that sample sentence. We have quite a variety in number of “errors found” here! I’d be interested to read where all the errors are located.
After submitting chapters of my WIP to my critique group I was informed of my excessive use of “That”…apparently I like THAT word, ha! It is great to have someone look over your work. I think often times we stare at it for so long we don’t see the errors anymore. 🙂
I stopped our subscription to the local paper here (a small publication) because of the excessive typos. They distracted me so much, I found I stopped understanding the content of the articles.
Whenever I find I’ve made an error, I am absolutely mortified. Usually it’s a word left out because my mind knows it’s supposed to be there and my eyes fail to see it.
Great post, Mary!
A grandma with perfect grammar, a mother with perfect spelling. . .I am so blessed!
I’d correct two spelling errors and rearrange the sentence, deleting two words and three punctuation marks. I don’t know how to count the changes. Is my editing better than my math?
I’ve now done 55 hours on my first book proposal. It’s not finished and I’m really tired. This post was such great timing, and I’m so glad this is normal. I’m happy to say I have arranged a meeting with two editing friends next week. I’m so greatful for the support. I’ve never thought of myself as a writer, a pastor more so, but here I am with an almost finished book. It’s a good thing that dictionay.com doesn’t keep record of how many times a day I use it. My respect for authors of multiple books has increased so much this past year. You are all amazing!
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As the sentence stands, those who said there are six errors are correct. The confusion comes because correcting the sentence goes beyond punctuation, grammar, and spelling. I’m sure you all thought of this better solution:
What punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors do you find in this sentence?