Wednesday, January 29, 2020

What's wrong with this sentence?

When you write something, anything, and then you check it over, often your brain deceives you into seeing what's supposed to be there rather than what's really there. I read my work, I double check my work. My crit partners read my work. My editor reads my work and then I read it again. STILL, there's always something that sneaks through. The same is true in any job, anyone who has to write something, whether it's a technical brief or a legal opinion or a financial report. Multiple eyes on a project and still something will sneak through.

I recently got an email from a friend who pointed something out to me. I swear, it took me reading it three times to realize what was wrong with this sentence, because I know what it's meant to say (but that's not what it says).
They sliced cheese to drink with their wine.
Facepalm.

In this age of technology, the error is easy to fix, but holy cow. With all the people who have read this, you'd think someone would have noticed sooner. One must always factor in for human error.

And now, back to work on the second Hillendale novel. Have you picked up FAMILY ALCHEMY yet?
"The main characters Brynn and her aunt Nora, with their supernatural powers, grab you by the heartstrings right from the start and keep hold until the very last word." - Jennifer L. LeClair

You can buy it here!

5 comments:

  1. I hate those mistakes. Right now, I'm having Word read my manuscript to me, in the hopes that if I hear it, mistakes will jump out.

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    1. Yep. Even with the oral proof, I skipped right over this. At some point you just have to accept that mistakes happen!

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  2. Your LinkedIn profile mentions your "proof reading" skills. But "proofreading" is one word.

    Even in the following sentence — "The same is true in any job, anyone who has to write something, whether its a technical brief or a legal opinion or a financial report" — you have two errors: "for" should be placed in front of "anyone," and "its" should be "it's."

    Slow down. Prioritize quality, not quantity. Engage the world and the people around you. You'll be better off.

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    Replies
    1. You’ve made my point about editors! We seldom can see the errors in our own work, even when they’re crystal clear in someone else’s.

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