A Short Proofreading Exercise

A short proofreading exercise.

This week, I’ve put together a little proofreading exercise for you. It’s a very brief summary of the early years of William Blake’s life. Set your beady eyes to work and see if you can spot the errors and issues. As with all proofreading activities, I strongly recommend you print this out and read from a hard copy. You can just cut and paste the paragraphs below into your word-processing application.

William Blake was born in 1757 in Soho, London. In 1772, he became an apprentice engraver under the tutelage of James Basire. At the end of this seven-year apprenticeship, Blake became a student at the Royal Academy, where he studied for six years. During this time, he became friends with the artists John Flaxman, Thomas Stothard and George Cumberland, and married Catherine Boucher.

Blake’s first poetry collection was published in 1783. Only forty copies of Poetical Sketches were produced, and they were not made available for sale, instead being given to friends in Blake’s circle. Although the collection is not regarded as being among Blake’s better work, it provides significant insight into the poets emerging themes and use of symbolism.

​In 1788, Blake began experimenting with the technique known as ‘relief etching’. This would become the method by which most of his great works would be produced, including Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Book of Thel, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell; and Jerusalem.

There are only two errors here.

• At the end of the second paragraph, poets should be poet's.
• In the final sentence, the semicolon should be replaced with a comma or we could even dispense with any punctuation at all at that point.

Well done if you spotted both errors.
See you next time.
Mike