 It’s hard to know where to start with this story from KXAS-TV. It illustrates
any number of proofreading lessons: how easy it is to miss a humdinger of an
error, how difficult said error can be to rectify once it has been spotted and
the potential cost involved. I think I’ll leave it to the original reporter,
Andrew Tanielian.
A Texas elementary school is correcting a spelling mistake made when it
changed its name nearly nine years ago.
Sunrise Elementary School in Fort Worth added "McMillan" to its name in the
2003-2004 school year -- but also added an extra "i."
The school changed its name to honour its first teacher, Mrs. Mary McMillan,
who eventually became principal. A relative recently reached out to the Fort
Worth Independent School District to say it had bought an extra vowel.
Everything had the incorrect spelling of "Sunrise-McMillian" instead of
"Sunrise-McMillan," including the lettering on the building, printed signs,
vinyl congratulatory signs, logos and Facebook.
"Oh, I was kind of shocked," said Ernie Johnson, who waters the grass on
school grounds and never knew the spelling was wrong. "I hadn't paid it any
mind."
Ever since hearing from McMillan's relative, the school has been correcting
the error. But the name is in many places people easily forget, such as business
cards, visitor's passes, certificates and digital signatures embedded in
email.
The school is taking the corrections with the right balance of seriousness
and humour. Principal Marion Mouton and his staff keep finding misspellings to
correct.
"Our day-to-day things that we just take for granted now and, as
we're coming up with it, we're seeing 'OK, that's something else we need to
fix,'" he said.
The student body as a whole hasn't been told, though some may know. Once more
misspellings are corrected, the school hopes to turn the mix-up into a teachable
moment on how to take responsibility, correct an error and move on.
When visiting her class, teacher Jouet Dotson came up with a quick brainstorm
on how to teach the new, correct spelling.
"You know how we say there's no 'i' in team?" teacher Jouet Dotson
brainstormed.
"We could say, 'Well, [at] Sunrise-McMillan, we're a team, so
there is no 'i' in the last part of McMillan.'"
The Fort Worth ISD isn't saying how much it will cost to fix all the mistakes
but did say it's exhausting all resources to try and keep costs down.
I’ve often stated on this blog, and elsewhere on this site, that proofreaders don’t just spot spelling mistakes, they save businesses, publishers, writers, journalists and marketers from considerable blushes.
But, sometimes, spelling errors can result in more than just flushed cheeks and a little humiliation or an expensive reprint.
In the case of the Pembury War Memorial in Kent, a lack of due care and attention resulted in heartache and fury when it was discovered that the names of 8 soldiers who had lost their lives in the two world wars had been misspelled.
The names were:
Albert Mc'Queen (should be Albert McQueen)
Albert and Thomas Penticost (should be Pentecost)
Sydney Ratcliffe (should be Sidney Ratcliffe)
John Stedman (should be John Steadman)
Edward Crossley (should be Edmund Crossley)
William Parks (should be William Parkes)
John Philbeam (should be John Pilbeam)
You can read the full story over at the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-16560970
... it's about saving your clients from devastating humiliations like this.
 You've Got Maul
Usually, the clue is in the title. Proofreaders, it must therefore be assumed, read proofs. And that’s true enough, they do. However, if you think that means the ability to read is the key component of an effective proofreader’s professional make-up, then I’m afraid you’re very much mistaken.
If anything, the ability to read swiftly and fluently is a major drawback when proofreading. As your eyes skip across the page, bouncing from word to word like that funny little karaoke ball, following the writer’s carefully crafted rhythms and beats, you will miss all kinds of errors.
To become an effective proofreader you have to ‘unlearn to read’.
Now, that’s a lot more difficult than it sounds because your brain is an extremely effective proofreader and editor in its own right. Not only does it spot errors, it also corrects them, immediately and without you even realising it.
Don’t believe me? Try reading the following.
Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mind! Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig, huh?
Can you see now that porofaerdnig inst all aoubt rdaenig?
At least 90% of what you’ve just read is gibberish, yet your brain was able to take it apart and put it back together again in the right order.
And your brain does this all the time. It works with what it’s got and, whenever it can, it forces things to fit in with how it thinks things ought to be.
As a proofreader, this is a positive liability. Which is why you need a robust and effective proofreading methodology. It isn’t enough just to slow things down and read things backwards. You need to head your brain off at the pass and stop it from being so darned helpful all the time. Chapter 5 of The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course provides you with just such a methodology and a whole host of little tricks and techniques to keep that organic supercomputer of yours in its place.
Good lcuk wtih all yuor poorfaedrnig ednaevuros!
Checking my Google Analytics, I’ve noticed that quite a few people have arrived at this website having Googled the phrases free proofreading courses, free online proofreading course, free proofreading eBook, free proofreading course online and a few variants thereon. Well, is there any such thing as a free proofreading course? Not as far as I’m aware. Like the free lunch, it’s something of a contemporary myth. That being said, my research tells me that £19.99 is as close as you’re likely to get to a free proofreading course.
So, what do you get for your £19.99?
First and foremost, you get an incredibly effective proofreading methodology. Believe me, this is absolutely central to any professional proofreader’s career. A sound grasp of grammar and good spelling are all well and good, but without the technique to help you home-in on the errors, they’re of little or no use at all.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the proofreading methodology detailed in Chapter 5 of the eBook is worth your £19.99 alone. Of course, I would say that. However, I think you’ll agree once you’ve read the book. Furthermore, so confident am I that you’ll agree, The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course comes with a 30-day money back guarantee.
To summarise, having scoured the internet, I can find no free proofreading courses. Not one. And nor can I find any proofreading courses which even come close to competing with my £19.99 price tag.
So, there are no free proofreading courses but you’ll find one that’s as near as damn-it on this website.
Give it a try. You’ve got thirty days to make up your mind. What have you got to lose? And don’t forget, you could get a return on your investment by successfully completing just one, small, professional proofreading assignment – the Society for Editors and Proofreaders recommend you charge £20.25 per hour.
Buy the eBook here.
I’ve just added 10 new proofreading exercises to the website. Help yourself. Just right-click and download.
If you’re short of time, you can download all the proofreading exercises for the price of a Tweet. Just click on the ‘Pay with a Tweet’ button and, once you’ve Tweeted, you’ll be taken to a new download page, where the exercises are available in a single, convenient bundle.
The exercises are here. The ‘Pay with a Tweet’ button is over on the right-hand side of the same page.
Good luck with the exercises.
I’ll be adding more very soon.
How long did it take you to spot the second 'the'?
Unlike many careers, proofreading doesn’t follow the education-qualification-employment route. As much as many course providers will tell you that you need to attend a structured course, complete assignments, take examinations and gain an official proofreading qualification, this simply isn’t the case.
In short, you become a proofreader by proofreading. Potential employers or clients are going to be more interested in your track record than they are in a piece of paper from the Proofreading Academy of Greater Manchester (no matter how fine the calligraphy on the certificate).
But how do you get a track record in the first place? Easy, you offer your services for free. If you have any friends or relatives with their own business, offer to proofread the copy on their website or any promotional literature they are producing. Now, create an account on LinkedIn and request recommendations from your ‘clients’. You now have an official business presence complete with testimonials. These testimonials are the true credentials you’ll need to get your foot in the door with a potential employer or client. You don’t need to give away too much for free; just a few hours work should be enough to build up a reasonable portfolio.
And I’m just scratching the surface, here. The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course contains lots more advice on how to wow potential employers.
As an added incentive to purchase The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course (as if any were needed!), I've added three FREE eBooks, totalling more than 340 pages on the subjects of English grammar, punctuation and the importance of the proofreader.
If you've already purchased the course, don't panic! Just drop me a line and I'll send you a link to the free eBooks.
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