 A Proofreader’s Guide to the Semicolon Last week we looked at precisely what I meant by ‘a proofreader’s perspective’ on grammar. You can read that post here. If time’s a little tight, here’s the ‘nutshell’ version. A proofreader should only concern themselves with the correct/incorrect uses of grammar, language and punctuation. You are not trying to improve a piece of writing – that would be an editor’s task – you are there to highlight errors and give instructions as to how they should be corrected. We’re looking at the semicolon today. We’re going to be considering it objectively. Wrong and right. If we were to bring our subjective opinion to bear on a piece of writing containing a semicolon, we could find ourselves in the middle of a heated debate that’s been raging for decades. For example, this is what the great novelist Kurt Vonnegut had to say about semicolons in his 2005 memoir ‘A Man Without a Country’: “Here is a lesson in creative writing. The first rule: do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.” The crime writer Donald Westlake (who, under the pseudonym Richard Stark, penned the incomparable ‘Parker’ novels) is a keen advocate of the semicolon. However, in defending his use of the semicolon in ‘The Man with the Getaway Face’, he acknowledges that its use is more as a stylistic device than as a grammatical necessity. In response to an editor removing the semicolon from a sentence, he says, “Breaking the offending sentence into two sentences is grammatically correct but… rhythmically wrong.”
Two exceptional writers. Two completely different views on the value of the semicolon. If, as a proofreader, you get yourself in the middle of that little debate, you’re going to lose a lot of valuable proofreading time! So, we’re going to be looking at how to spot:
Let’s start with the first of those: the inaccurately employed semicolon. Before we can do that, we need to be clear about the purpose and ‘correct’ use of the semicolon. A semicolon is used to connect two related but independent clauses. In other words, two clauses that can stand alone, separated by a period but that are so closely related there’s an almost intuitive urge to reduce the length of the pause between them. Examples of Semicolon Usage I hate ice cream. It makes my brain hurt. I hate ice cream; it makes my brain hurt. Both of the above are correct. There is an argument to be had about which is better, but that’s someone else’s problem. The following, however, is incorrect: I hate ice cream; because it makes my brain hurt. The use of a conjunction and a semicolon is plain wrong. Put your red pen to work. There is no debate to be had. If you see a semicolon immediately followed by and, but, or, nor, for, so or yet, it's wrong. The following is also incorrect: I hate ice cream; elephants are my favourite mammal. There is no connection at all between these two clauses, beyond the notion of likes and dislikes. That being said, if this is a work of fiction and the writer is trying to demonstrate the character’s terrible concentration span, it might actually be a very effective device! This is why proofreading fiction or, worse, poetry can be a bit of a nightmare. The following is… debatable: I hate ice cream; my favourite food is bananas. In this case, I would argue the two clauses are not closely enough related to warrant a semicolon. The writer might argue otherwise (she’s talking about food likes and dislikes). In this case, we move on. There’s no error here (no conjunction for example) and the clauses are sort of related. It’s for the writer and editor to fight this one out. Now let’s look at where the absence of a semicolon can be problematic. We’re talking about lists here. Or, more to the point, lists which containing additional information that requires the use of a comma. Examples of Semicolon Usage in Lists My favourite writers are Alan Moore, the author of the Swamp Thing comics and the novels Voice of the Fire and Jerusalem, Stephen King, whose written too many books to mention and William Blake, English poet, painter, engraver and visionary. Now, this sentence can be read and easily understood but it’s grammatically problematic. It should read: My favourite writers are Alan Moore, the author of the Swamp Thing comics and the novels Voice of the Fire and Jerusalem; Stephen King, whose written too many books to mention; and William Blake, English poet, painter, engraver and visionary. In other words, if we’re listing things and at the same time using commas to insert additional information, the semicolon comes into play as a kind of ‘super-comma’. Also, it’s worth noting that when being employed as a super-comma, the semicolon can precede a conjunction. Another example J.K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter Farewell Tour’ will visit the following cities: Louisville, Kentucky; Huntsville, Alabama; Columbia, South Carolina; Wilmington, North Carolina; and Atlanta, Georgia. Takeaway As a proofreader, you will need to make for deletion:
You will need to add a semicolon:
And that’s it, other than to say: I’m not a fan of semicolons; they’re a pain the backside. See you next time. If you liked this article, please share!
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1/26/2020 Ready to Sign Up With Every Online Freelance Proofreading Marketplace You Can Find?Read Now Ready to Sign Up With Every Online Freelance Proofreading Marketplace You Can Find?Hopefully, you’ve read my last article: ‘How to Get Your Proofreading Business Online and Start Making Money’ (you can read it here…) where I set out the four ‘Where to start’ steps that will get you there.
The substance of that article was to reassure you that you can make a living as a proofreader by addressing the most common queries that we receive:
In this article, I’ll address Step 1 of our Where to Start list of steps that will give you concrete solutions on your journey to creating your own successful proofreading business. The bottom line is:
Okay, Step 1. Sign-up with every online freelance proofreading marketplace you can find. As I mentioned in my last article, signing up with as many online freelance job sites as you can is a great first step and is probably the most cost-effective method of promoting yourself as a proofreader. The reasons for doing so might seem obvious, but apart from giving yourself some much-needed online exposure as a freelance proofreader, this important first step solidifies the notion that you’re taking this thing seriously and it most definitely gets you in the correct mindset from the get-go. It’s true that I want you to get to Step 2 (Create Your Proofreading Service Website) as soon as possible but this first step of ‘signing up with every online freelance proofreading marketplace you can find’ is hugely important and one which you should take seriously because this is where you get to dip your toe into the world of marketing, or more specifically, self-promotion. In this article, I’ll share 30 online websites that are either excellent online marketplaces for freelance proofreaders in their own right, or they’re actual bona fide proofreading and editing websites that employ proofreaders and editors, and accept résumés from freelancers to work for them and their own client base. Before I get to those, I’d like you to take a pause and resist the temptation to jump in and sign up with some or all of the websites listed below, because it’s worth making the effort to get one of the most important elements of this process right from the outset: Creating your personal profile. And to be clear, not just any personal profile, you should try to create the most professional, well written personal profile you’ve ever written. Why? Because a professional, well-written personal profile will form the basis of every single freelance job application, every permanent job application and it will provide the basis of all of your future marketing and self-promotion activities. A professional, well written personal profile is a mini résumé which can pay huge dividends once you let it loose online. One of the largest freelance marketplaces online (if not the largest!) is Upwork, and they clearly agree with the need for a well written personal profile and they’ve written an excellent article to illustrate why. You can read it here: 8+ Tips to Help You Create a Profile That Stands Out Whilst the article is Upworkcentric, it’s a superb article that tells you exactly what to do and what to include to create a professional, well-written profile. In writing this, Upwork are effectively telling you what to do to be a successful freelancer (proofreader in your case) on the largest online freelance marketplace. And if your personal profile is good enough for them, it’s going to be good enough for any of the online freelance marketplaces listed below. Okay, so along with your well-written professional profile, what else do you need to consider before you begin your submissions for online freelance proofreading work? As with any job application, you would tailor your résumé to play to the strengths of the job requirements to maximize your success. When signing up with freelance marketplace websites, you should do exactly the same with your personal profile. You’ll save yourself a ton of time, effort and frustration if you do some homework and read up on each company’s requirements (for proofreaders) before applying. Your profile should play to the strengths and mirror those of the company who you’re signing up with. Step 1 in a nutshell…
Freelance Marketplace Websites for Proofreaders…
Proofreading and Editing Websites…
This of course is a relatively small selection of websites to ply your trade as a freelance proofreader, and they may not all be suitable for your particular skill set, but they’re a great start! Coming next… Step 2. Create a website. Bye for now. Jeff Full disclosure & disclaimer… Mike and I are not affiliated in any way with the freelance proofreading websites listed above. These website links are presented without condition or for personal profit in the hope that, having bought The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course, you can make money proofreading without delay.  A proofreader's guide to grammarSo, as promised in last week’s blog post, I’m going to start looking at some of the ‘tricksier’ aspects of English grammar and providing a proofreader’s perspective on usage and abusage. Before I start on the elements of grammar itself, I wanted to use this first post to explain what I mean by ‘a proofreader’s perspective’. Surely it makes no difference whether you’re the originator or proofreader of a sentence. Surely, the same rules apply. Strictly speaking, yes, the same rules apply. But there are qualitative decisions a writer makes with which a proofreader needn’t concern themselves. Remember, you’re a proofreader not an editor. You’re not asking yourself whether or not a sentence is good, you’re checking to make sure it’s correct. Let’s take a look at the semicolon (I’m going to be talking about this in more detail next week) to illustrate what I mean. So, a writer is trying to describe the moment in her novel when a particular character realises she has become invisible. She writes: Melissa couldn’t see herself in the mirror because she was invisible. She then deletes that sentence and writes: Melissa couldn’t see herself in the mirror. She was invisible. She then deletes that sentence and writes: Melissa couldn’t see herself in the mirror; she was invisible. Happy with this third permutation, she goes on to describe Melissa’s adventures in invisibility. None of these options is incorrect. The writer’s use of the semicolon in the third version is fine; the semicolon can be used in place of a conjunction. But you might have an opinion on which version is qualitatively better. Me, I like the second option. I think it has more punch. As a proofreader, my opinion on such matters isn’t relevant. I’ve got a job of work to do. I’m looking for errors. That’s what my client is paying me for. That’s what your client will be paying you for. If you’ve picked up The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course, followed its instruction and taken its advice, you’ll be charging your customer $35 per hour to find errors in their work. You might even be charging more if you’re proofreading in a niche area: science, medicine, law. You might have lots of clients and a stack of proofreading that’s going to keep you in new shoes and good food for the next three months. You haven’t got time to be getting into a discussion with a writer over whether or not a period would serve better than a semicolon in a particular instance. Don’t get me wrong, if your ambition is to become an editor, proofreading offers a very effective way in. In fact, Chapter 8 of The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course deals, in part, with that transition. But on this website, we really want to focus on how to proofread, how to become a proofreader and how to create and develop your proofreading career or business. Believe me, that’s more than enough to be getting on with. Let’s go back to our writer, and the adventures of the now invisible Melissa. Our writer types: Melissa raises a hand, holds it inches from her face and sees nothing. She deletes this and decides to go with: Melissa raises a hand to her face; and sees nothing. Now, as a proofreader, you have grounds to take issue. The writer has used a semicolon and a conjunction, which is redundant. You only need one or the other. So, put your red pen to work and mark it up. The writer might come back and say the usage was intentional, that she was trying to create a ‘beat’. That’s her call. In my opinion, a period would serve better in trying to achieve that effect: Melissa raises a hand to her face. And sees nothing. But it’s her call.
The fact remains, you were right to draw attention to this inaccurate use of a semicolon. You were doing your job as a proofreader and you were doing it well. In a nutshell, as a proofreader you’re concerned with wrong and right, not good-better-best. So, that’s what I mean when I say I’ll be looking at grammar usage and abusage from a proofreader’s perspective. See you next time, when I’ll be looking at that little winking-eye emoji in a little more depth. Until then, Mike  How to Get Your Proofreading Business Online and Start Making Money.So, you’ve bought the book, got the t-shirt and now you’re ready to put your new-found and hard-earned skills from The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course to good use. Well stick around and you’ll discover how you how you can save a ton of time and money getting your proofreading business online, even if you’re an online newbie - and much faster than you think! Throughout your journey, you’ll have no doubt pondered the following:
Well, in short, yes you can, and this short series of articles is where you’ll find everything you need to create, promote and have a successful online proofreading business. Apart from the tips and ideas included in Mike’s No-Nonsense Proofreading Course (Chapter 9 ‘The Business of Proofreading’) and in his blog, you’ll discover every idea I can think of to help you on your way to becoming a self-employed (paid!) proofreader. Because this is an important and wide-ranging topic, I’ll break it down into bite-sized chunks which we’ll explore in much greater detail in further posts, which hopefully you won’t find overwhelming. But first things first… Where to start… Step 1. Sign up with every online freelance marketplace you can find. Step 2. Create a website. Step 3. Sign up with every appropriate social media channel. Step 4. Write, post and blog like crazy! Fair Warning! Step one will definitely help, but the real juice is in steps two, three and four! OK, let’s cover step one because it won’t hurt. Signing up with as many online freelance job sites as you can is a great first step and is probably the most cost-effective method of promoting yourself as a proofreader. Doing so will give you some very important online exposure, but once that’s done then what? Well despite being a great first step, you’re likely to be one of many proofreaders trying to shine in what can often be a very crowded marketplace. In the No-Nonsense Proofreading Course, Mike includes a comprehensive list of freelance marketing websites where you can register your proofreading business for free. Whilst this first step may well be cost-effective and worthwhile, it’s unlikely to bring you paid work as a freelance proofreader in a hurry, so my advice for what it’s worth, is to get to Step 2 as soon as you can and set up your own website to promote your own online proofreading business. If you’re tech and web savvy and have a website already, then you’ll already be familiar with the benefits of having your own website. However, if you’re new to creating and operating a website and are a little daunted at the prospect, then don’t worry, there are numerous low-cost or cost-free simple website-building solutions that are perfect for the online novice.  The benefits of having your own website The obvious benefit of having your own website is that you’re in complete control of how you communicate with your target audience to sell your products or proofreading services, and rather than hunting down paid proofreading opportunities, you’ll massively increase the chances of those proofreading jobs coming looking for you! Your own website is where you can blog to your heart's content (content marketing), build your own list of subscribers (email marketing) and provide a shop window for your proofreading business (to actually make money proofreading). In addition to showcasing your online proofreading business, having your own website provides you with the perfect destination to direct and refer all of your social media posts, and by including the same social media links on your site, make all of you content available to share onward. The perfect win-win. So, how do you promote your online Proofreading Business? It goes without saying that, regardless of the skills, the product(s) or the service you’re offering, unless your potential customers know about you, your path to success is likely to be a long and frustrating one. With that in mind, we’ll focus on one of the most important elements of your new proofreading business: Marketing, or more specifically, digital marketing. Like any business, unless it’s actively promoted, it’s likely to wither and die, so promoting your proofreading services regularly is key to your online success. Over the next short series of articles, we’ll delve in and look at how and where you can promote your proofreading business.  Through your own Marketing Channels…
Organic Search Engines…
Social Media…
Write, post and blog like crazy! Adding relevant content as often as you can to your website will keep it alive and relevant in the eyes of the search engines. This is called content marketing and getting this right will elevate your website up the organic search listings. This article is content marketing and apart from being very effective for search engine optimization (SEO), it can also play a big part in your social media strategy, in that you can post snippets or tantalising hooks to attract visitors to your site. So, to summarise; Yes, you can have a successful proofreading business, and creating and promoting your business online is key to achieving that. Coming soon… Step 1: Sign up with every online freelance marketplace you can find. Bye for now. Jeff  The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course in 2020 We’re almost three weeks into 2020, so I thought I’d better tell you what we have planned for The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course website over the next 49 weeks.
First off, we’re planning to post more proofreading exercises. A lot more. It’s one of the main reasons people visit our proofreading course website, after all. We’re also going to provide a lot more grammar instruction. Now, I always make the point that The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course doesn’t contain any grammar instruction. Why? Because there’s plenty of grammar instruction available free online. I mean, seriously, there are some fantastic free resources out there. Just Google ‘grammar instruction’ and you’ll be presented with a long list of brilliant websites (there’s Grammar Girl’s ‘Quick and Dirty Tips’ just for starters). So why would we incorporate grammar instruction into our proofreading course, necessitating an increase in price? The whole point of The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course is to present you with an affordable proofreading course, with the focus being on proofreading method and how to set up and promote your own proofreading business so you can make some money. All that being said, there’s no reason we can’t add to the pool of grammar advice. I mean, you’re already here on the website, so you might as well find out how to use a semicolon properly while you’re here, right? So, there will be more grammar instruction, probably focusing on those tricky aspects of grammar that trip people up all the time. But more importantly than that, we’re going to be giving you a whole heap of guidance on how to set up and promote your proofreading business. To that end, I’d like to introduce you to Jeff Fullerton. Introducing Jeff Fullerton Now I’ve known Jeff for over 16 years. We worked together at Shop Direct, the UK’s biggest online and mail-order retailer. We worked in the publishing department of the business, producing (and, in my case, proofreading) literally thousands of pages every year. When I first started looking at the idea of creating The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course, it was to Jeff I turned for marketing advice as I knew he’d already dipped his toe into the online marketing stream and had already had significant success with a couple of websites. As a result, Jeff and I became business partners. Jeff has always been there in the background, developing and promoting the website and taking advantage of online marketing opportunities. In 2020, Jeff will be in the background no longer. He’ll be sharing his extensive knowledge of online marketing and business promotion to help you (hand-in-hand with The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course) create and grow your proofreading business. So, Jeff and I will be splitting blog-writing duties. I will be writing posts on the subject of proofreading, providing you with tips and proofreading exercises. Jeff will be posting on the subject of website creation, content marketing and general business advice. Together, our ambition is to create the go-to online resource for anyone and everyone who wants to not only learn how to proofread but how to make money proofreading, whether as the owner of their own proofreading business, in full-time employment as a proofreader or as a lucrative side-hustle. So, that’s it: 2020 in a nutshell for The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course.
But that’s not all. We’ve got a few other irons in the fire, but we’ll talk about those nearer the time. Suffice to say, we have some very exciting plans for the next twelve months! We’re confident that this is going to be a great year for The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course. And, with our help, this can be the year you launch your own proofreading business or career. Until next time, Mike  Welcome to this week’s Proofreading Roundup, in a week when rabid raccoons prowled the streets of Manhattan, an oil leak in the Solomon Islands threatened the world’s largest raised coral atoll, and former mob boss Carmine 'The Snake' Persico died at the age of 85.
This week’s weird words. A proofreader without a vast vocabulary is at a considerable disadvantage. So, every week we’ll be introducing you to some of the more unusual words to grace the English language.
This week’s tricky words. Even exemplary proofreaders have their little blind spots. The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course provides a comprehensive list of the tricky words that can trip up even the most experienced proofreader. Here are just three of them:
This week’s proofreading exercise. From The Cosmic Computer by H. Beam Piper. Thirty minutes to Litchfield. Conn Maxwell, at the armor-glass front of the observation deck, watched the landscape rush out of the horizen and vanish beneath the ship, ten thousand feet down. He thought he knew how an hourglass must feel with the sand slowly draining out. It had been six months to Litchfield when the Mizar lifted out of La Plata Spaceport and he watched Terra dwindle away. It had been two months to Litchfield when he boarded the City of Asgard at the port of the same name on Odin. It had been two hours to Litchfield when the Countess Dorothy rose from the airship dock at Storisende. He had had all that time, and now it was gone, and he was still unprepared for what he must face at home. Thirty minutes to Litchfield. The words echoed in his mind as though he had spoken them aloud, and then, realizing that he never addressed himself as sir, he turned. It was the first mate. He had a clipboard in his hand, and he was wearing a Terran Federation Space Navy uniform of forty years, or about a dozen regulation-changes, ago. Once Conn had taken that sort of thing for granted. Now it was obtruding upon him everywhere. "Thirty minutes to Litchfield, sir," the first officer repeated, and gave him the clipboard to check the luggage list. Valises, two; trunks, two; microbook case, one. The last item fanned a small flicker of anger, not at any person, not even at himself, but at the whole infernal situation. He nodded. "That's everything. Not many passengers left aboard, are there?" "You're the only one, first class, sir. About forty farm laborers on the lower deck." He dismissed them as mere cargo. "Litchfield's the end of the run." "I know. I was born there." The mate looked again at his name on the list and grinned. "You're Rodney Maxwell's son. Your father's been giving us a lot of freight lately. I guess I don't have to tell you about Litchfield." "Maybe you do. I've been away for six years. Tell me, are they having labor trouble now." "Labor trouble?" The mate was surprised. "You mean with the farm-tramps? Ten of them for every job, if you call that trouble." "Well, I noticed you have steel gratings over the gangway heads to the lower deck, and all your crewmen are armed. Not just pistols, either." "Oh. That's on account of pirates." "Pirates?" Conn echoed. "Well, I guess you'd call them that. A gang'll come aboard, dressed like farm-tramps; they'll have tommy guns and sawed-off shotguns in their bindles. When the ship's airborn and out of reach of help, they'll break out their guns and take her. Usually kill all the crew and passengers. They don't like to leave live witnesses," the mate said. "You heard about the Harriet Barne, didn't you?" Errors:
You may have paused over the word “bindle”. A bindle is the bag-and-stick combination often seen in stereotypical depictions of migrant workers or homeless vagrants. If you have any comments, I'd love to hear them. You can leave them below. I hope to see you back here, next week, for another Proofreading Course Weekly Roundup. If you’re considering a career in proofreading, you might want to consider my great-value proofreading course. Click here for details.  Welcome to this week’s Proofreading Roundup, in a week when a streaming-service movie won the Best Director Oscar at the Academy Awards, the disturbing online phenomena (and moral panic) of Momo hit the headlines, and the World Bridge Federation suspended Geir Helgemo after he failed a random drug test.
This week’s weird words A proofreader without a vast vocabulary is at a considerable disadvantage. So, every week we’ll be introducing you to some of the more unusual words to grace the English language.
This week’s tricky words Even exemplary proofreaders have their little blind spots. The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course provides a comprehensive list of the tricky words that can trip up even the most experienced proofreader. Here are just three of them:
This week’s proofreading exercise From Seller of the Sky by Dave Dryfoos. "It's winter, my boy. We'd freeze." "You've said it's pretty in winter! You took the money for the certificate." "I suppose you'll grow away from your parents soon anyhow; I suppose you have to.... Get your warmest clothes and meet me at emergency exit four." My grandfather talked it over with his sister Annie and of course they didn't have any warm clothes, but they'd heard so often from Old Arch about the cold that they put on two sets of tights apiece, and two pairs of socks, and then they hunted for the emergency exit. They'd never been there before. They didn't know anyone who had. The signs pointing to it were all worn and defaced. And it was a long way to go. After a while Annie began to hang back. "How do we know the exit will work?" she asked. "And how will we get back in if we ever do get out?" "You don't have to come," my grandfather said. "But you'll have to find your own way home from here." "I'll bet I could," she said. "But I'm not going to. I don't think Old Arch will even be at the exit." But he was. He looked at them carefully to see how they were dressed. "You mean trouble for me, girl," he told Annie. "They'll think I took you along to make love to." She had just reached that betwixt and between stage where she was beginning to look like a woman but didn't yet think like one. "Pooh!" she said. "I can run faster and hit harder than you can, Arch. You don't worry me a bit." Old Arch sighed and led them through the lock. They stepped out into a raging snowstorm, which soon draped a cloak of invisibility over them. Neither my grandfather nor Annie had ever smelled fresh air before. It threatened to make them drunk. Their nostrils tingled and their eyes misted over and they’re breath steamed up like bathwater. For the first time in their lives, they shivered. When the City was out of sight in the storm, they stopped for a moment in the ankle-deep snow and just listened. They held their breaths and heard silence for the first time in their lives. Old Arch reached down and picked up some soft snow and threw it at them. They pelted him back, and then, because he was so old, attacked each other instead, shouting and throwing snowballs and running aimlessly. Old Arch soon checked them. "Don't get lost," he said. "We're walking downhill. Don't forget that. We're going into a draw where there are some trees." He coughed and drew his rags about him. "The city is up hill," he said. "If you keep walking around it, you'll find a way in." His tone was frightening. Annie clung to my grandfather and made him walk close to the old man. It was clear the old man didn't have enough clothes on. He staggered and leaned hard on my grand father. They kept moving down the slight grade. They saw no sky and little of anything else. The snow was like a miniature of the City's dome, except that this dome floated over them as they walked. Its edges were only about fifty yards off. "Where are the Outsiders?" my grandfather asked. "Aren't there people here?" "They're miles away," Arch told him. "And indoors. Only fools and youngsters are out in this blizzard." "Fool’s is right," Annie said tartly. "There was supposed to be sky. And there isn't." Errors:
If you have any comments, I'd love to hear them. You can leave them below. I hope to see you back here, next week, for another Proofreading Course Weekly Roundup. If you’re considering a career in proofreading, you might want to consider my great-value proofreading course. Click here for details.  Welcome to this week's Proofreading Course Roundup, in a week when Space X's Falcon 9 rocket endured "a rather spicy landing"; Samsung revealed their new foldable phone will cost "just" $1,980; and the first mammal, the Bramble Cay mosaic-tailed rat, was made extinct due to climate change.
This week’s weird words. A proofreader without a vast vocabulary is at a considerable disadvantage. So, every week we’ll be introducing you to some of the more unusual words to grace the English language.
This week’s tricky words. Even exemplary proofreaders have their little blind spots. The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course provides a comprehensive list of the tricky words that can trip up even the most experienced proofreader. Here are just three of them:
This week’s proofreading exercise. From The Earth Quarter by Damon Knight. The sun had set half an hour before. Now, from the window of Laszlo Cudyk's garret, he could see how the alien city shone frost-blue against the black sky; the tall hive-shapes that no man would have built, glowing with their own light. Nearer, the slender drunken shafts of lamp posts marched toward him down the street, each with its prosaic yellow globe. Between them and all around, the darkness had gathered; darkness in angular shapes, the geometry of squallor. Cudyk liked this view, for at night the blackness of the Earth Quarter seemed to merge with the black sky, as if one were a minor extension of the other—a fist of space held down to the surface of the planet. He could feel, then, that he was not alone, not isolated and forgotten; that some connection still existed across all the light-years of the galaxy between him and what he had lost. And, again, the view depressed him; for at night the city seemed to press in upon the Quarter like the walls of a prison. The Quarter: sixteen square blocks, about the size of those of an Earth city, two thousand three hundred human beings of three races, four religions, eighteen nationalities; the only remnant of the human race nearer than Capella. Cudyk felt the night breeze freshening. He glanced upward once at the frosty blaze of stars, then pulled his head back inside the window. He closed the shutters, turning to the lamp-lit table with it’s hopeless clutter of books, pipes and dusty miscellany. Errors:
If you have any comments, I'd love to hear them. You can leave them below. I hope to see you back here, next week, for another Proofreading Course Weekly Roundup. If you're interested in becoming a proofreader, why not take a look at my great-value proofreading course? Click here.  This week’s weird words.
A proofreader without a vast vocabulary is at a considerable disadvantage. So, every week we’ll be introducing you to some of the more unusual words to grace the English language.
This week’s tricky words. Even exemplary proofreaders have their little blind spots. The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course provides a comprehensive list of the tricky words that can trip up even the most experienced proofreader. Here are just three of them:
This week’s proofreading exercise. From The Awakening by Kate Chopin: It was eleven o'clock that night when Mr. Pontellier returned from Klein's hotel. He was in an excellent humor, in high spirits, and very talkative. His entrance awoke his wife, who was in bed and fast asleep when he came in. He talked to her while he undressed, telling her anecdotes and bits of news and gossip that he had gathered during the day. From his trousers pockets he took a fistful of crumpled bank notes and a good deal of silver coin, which he piled on the bureau indiscriminately with keys, knife, handkerchief, and whatever else happened to be in his pockets. She was overcome with sleep, and answered him with little half utterances. He though it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation. Mr. Pontellier had forgotten the bonbons and peanuts for the boys. Notwithstanding he loved them very much, and went into the ajoining room where they slept to take a look at them and make sure that they were resting comfortably. The result of his investigation was far from satisfactory. He turned and shifted the youngsters about in bed. One of them began to kick and talk about a basket full of crabs. Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it. Mrs. Pontellier was quite sure Raoul had no fever. He had gone to bed perfectly well, she said, and nothing had ailed him all day. Mr. Pontellier was too well acquainted with fever symptoms to be mistaken. He assured her the child was consuming at that moment in the next room. He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business. He could not be in two places at once; making a living for his family on the street, and staying at home to see that no harm befell them. He talked in a monotonous, insistent way. Mrs. Pontelier sprang out of bed and went into the next room. She soon came back and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning her head down on the pillow. She said nothing, and refused to answer her husband when he questioned her. When his cigar was smoked out he went to bed, and in half a minute he was fast asleep.  If someone had told me at the outset that, a whole decade later, I’d be running a successful business, I’d have raised an eyebrow, to say the least.
Firstly, this was 2008. Things were not looking good for business. I can’t remember if anyone was using the term ‘The Great Recession’ at that point, but ‘financial crisis’ and ‘subprime mortgage crisis’ were in full circulation. Lehman Brothers had yet to bite the dust, but the writing was on the wall. The second reason I’d have raised an eyebrow was that it wasn’t really my intention to start a business. Not really. I was responding to an unfairness, to what I saw as a form of exploitation. Now I could be wrong, and this is just my opinion, but proofreading courses in 2008 were needlessly expensive. I mean, they’re needlessly expensive now, but we’re talking about 2008: Kung Fu Panda and the Sex and the City movie are still doing great box office and John Grisham's The Appeal is dominating the New York Times bestseller list. Hundreds of dollars for a proofreading course was just wrong. Or at the very least, it was unnecessary. The qualifications these proofreading courses offered were irrelevant. No one hiring proofreaders was asking for them. I knew that because I’d been hiring proofreaders for years and proofreading qualifications were not a part of any recruitment criteria. I looked at experience, and I had all applicants sit a test. A really tricky test. And that was it. No proofreading qualifications. No. Proofreading. Qualifications. The assessment process these proofreading courses insisted upon was unnecessary. Why did someone have to ‘mark’ work that was either right or wrong. These were not essays on the themes of justice and corruption in King Lear. These were public domain extracts with deliberate mistakes inserted into them. If they’d provided their students/customers with an answer sheet, they could have omitted the whole costly correspondence aspect of their business model, a cost passed onto you-know-who. Worst of all, these proofreading courses were expecting you to pay for grammar instruction. There were whole pages on dangling modifiers, split infinitives and when and where to use a semicolon. In 2018, all of that stuff is available free online. There are some fantastic grammar websites, and they won’t cost you a penny. Granted, in 2008, this wasn’t quite the case. The instruction was there but you had to put it together piecemeal. However, for about the cost of a cup of coffee, you could get hold of a second hand grammar book. Even a brand new grammar book would weigh-in at a fraction of the cost of these proofreading courses were expecting you to pay. Ten years later, and very little has changed. There are still a bunch of proofreading courses out there that are happy to charge you for the unnecessary. And The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course is still here, offering you a great-value alternative. Ten years. Wow. I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has bought my proofreading training material over the years and for all those people, like Emma Steel, who have become advocates for The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course. If you’ve yet to give The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course a try, click here, to find out more. If you have any concerns or questions at all, please feel free to drop me an email here. |
Testimonials
“I am one of those many fools who paid a huge amount of money for a useless course. This book... has opened so many doors for me. I now look on Mike as my mentor as I embark on a career. Thank you Mike.” Emma Steel, Proofreader and International Structural Editor. “ I thoroughly enjoyed the course and am so glad that I decided to take it... the whole experience was invaluable. My proofreading service is now well established and your course played no small part in getting it off the ground.” Hache L. Jones, Proofreader. “I'd just like to thank you first of all for writing such a great, straight forward eBook, and then going above and beyond what I would even expect as a customer by providing us, completely free of charge, updated versions months later!” Rachel Gee, Trainee Proofreader. “What can I say? Worth every penny and then some! God Bless! This a fabulous course.” Teresa Richardson, Proofreader. “As someone who has effectively been proofreading for thirty years, I found Mike’s No-Nonsense Proofreading Course an invaluable introduction and a very useful practical guide to many aspects of this discipline. I can wholeheartedly recommend it as the ideal starting point, and much more besides.” Jeremy Meehan, Proofreader. Blog AuthorMy name's Mike Sellars and I'm an experienced proofreader and the author of The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course. Click here to find out more about me. 
The No-Nonsense Proofreading CourseA Fraction of the Cost of Other Proofreading Courses NOTE: Stock is currently limited to 10 per day, so we can continue to deliver exceptional after-sales service, answer queries and provide open-door support. Credit card and PayPal payments accepted. “As someone who has been proofreading for 30 years, I found Mike’s course an invaluable introduction and a very useful practical guide to many aspects of the discipline. I can wholeheartedly recommend it.” Jeremy Meehan, Proofreader. Still want to find out more? Click here. Proofreading Categories
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