Proofreading advice: read out loud

December 9, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall 9 Comments

You’ve taken a break and printed off your work. Now you need to decide how you are going to divide the text into manageable chunks.

It will depend on the length and style of the project, but you might find proofreading a chapter and then taking a small break is a good way to maintain focus.

Before you start reading to spot errors, read the text through at least once with clarity and sense in mind.

Don’t be afraid to read out loud. Errors are often obvious when you say them. As you read, it may be useful to imagine someone else listening to you. Would the listener be able to understand what you are trying to convey? Would they be able to follow your argument or narrative?

It’s best to revise any areas you think aren’t clear or don’t work before you begin proofreading for spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Articles in this series:

‘Mincemeat’ or ‘minced meat’?

December 7, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall 5 Comments

We are progressing rapidly through December, and that means it is now acceptable to eat lots of mince pies.

Mince pies contain mincemeat, and you probably wouldn’t want to put brandy cream on a pie containing minced meat.

Minced meat: Meat that has been cut up into very small pieces (usually by a machine).

Mincemeat: A mixture of dried fruit, sugar and spices. It may also contain alcohol (often brandy) and suet.

Mincemeat did once contain actual meat, and there is an interesting article on the history of the filling of mince pies here. Some dictionaries do give mincemeat as another word for minced meat, so be sure to check the context it is being used in.

Defenestration

December 4, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall 12 Comments

Defenestration is the action of throwing someone (or something) out of a window. It can also be used to describe the process or action of removing someone from a position of authority or power.

You can defenestrate someone or be defenestrated.

Defenestration is early 17th century in origin, stemming from de- meaning ‘down from’ and the Latin fenestra meaning ‘window’.

The word is thought to have been coined around the time of the Defenestration of Prague in 1618. The incident at Prague Castle saw two Catholic governors and their scribe thrown from windows by Protestant citizens. The defenestration helped to start the Thirty Years War.

Proofreading advice: print it off

December 2, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall 18 Comments

When you are ready to start proofreading your writing, print it off. You will be surprised by how much easier it is to spot errors on paper than on a screen.

Make sure the text is black and that colours are only used when appropriate. (Refer to your style guide if you aren’t sure what is appropriate.) When you mark corrections using a colour pen, the corrections will stand out best against black text and on white paper.

Physical distance makes it easier to spot errors in format, style and layout. Hold the pages out in front of you, pin or stick them to a board, or ask someone to hold them up for you. Don’t forget to check the pages against each other for any inconsistencies.

Articles in this series:

‘Team’ and ‘teem’

November 30, 2015November 30, 2015Hannah McCall 3 Comments

Team:

a group of players forming one of the sides in a sporting contest or competitive game
a real or notional group which supports or favours a thing or person
two or more people working together
two or more animals working together
harness together (animals, typically horses) to pull a vehicle
‘team up’ – to join with someone in order to work together to achieve a common goal
‘team with’ – to match or coordinate something with something else (typically clothes)

Teem:

‘teem with’ – to have a great number of, to be full of, or swarming with
(of water, typically rain) to pour down or fall heavily

Thank you to Jeff Curry for suggesting this post.

Rub-a-dub

November 27, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall Leave a comment

You might be familiar with a nursery rhyme about three men in a tub. Or the BBC’s version about socks (if my socks had that many holes, I would just get rid of them).

Rub-a-dub was originally a word for the sound made by beating a drum or for a drumming sound.

It is often used to describe a rhythmic sound or motion, such as rubbing or scrubbing to make something clean.

Rub-a-dub is also rhyming slang for pub.

Proofreading advice: take a break

November 25, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall 18 Comments

I’m tinkering with a guide to help students who wish to proofread their own work, and I thought I would share some of the advice on my blog.

You’ve finished writing. You’ve made your edits. The next step is to proofread.

Don’t.

https://pixabay.com/en/snow-winter-cold-white-landscape-616319/

If it looks like this outside, you know where you should be.

Save your work. Put down your pen. Switch off the computer. Take a break.

The best thing to do, I think, is to go outside. Take a walk and get some fresh air. If you can’t go out, do something else to take your mind off the work. Bake a cake, knit a small hat, clean the bathroom. Do whatever you like doing to relax.

If you have enough time, leave your work for a day or more.

This should create distance, and distance should help you spot errors. When your words are not fresh in your mind, you can look at your writing from a different perspective.

That’s when it’s time to start proofreading.

Articles in this series:

‘Palate’, ‘palette’ and ‘pallet’

November 23, 2015November 23, 2015Hannah McCall 1 Comment

I must admit I have to think very carefully about these three.

Palate:

the roof of the mouth
the sense of taste or ability to distinguish between and appreciate flavours
the flavour of wine and beer

Palette:

a flat, thin board used by artists to mix paints
the range of colours characteristic of a particular artist or school of painting, also the range of colours used in a particular painting
the range of colours, patterns or shapes that can be displayed on the visual display unit of a computer
the range of tonal colour in a piece of music

Pallet:

a straw-filled mattress or bed; a crude, temporary or makeshift bed
a tool (often wooden) with a flat blade used for shaping clay or plaster
a portable platform for stacking, storing and moving goods
a projection on a machine part that changes the motion of a wheel

Pallet also has specialist uses in relation to timepieces and heraldry.

Catty-cornered

November 20, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall 8 Comments

https://pixabay.com/en/cat-kitten-rozko%C5%A1n%C3%A9-little-wood-914110/

Sorry Britishers, it has nothing to do with cats. Here’s a picture of one anyway.

This week’s interesting word is (I believe) common in American English but almost unknown in British English.

It is a variation of cater-cornered. There are other variations including catacornered, caddy-cornered and kitty-cornered.

Cater-cornered means ‘diagonal’ or ‘diagonally’. It is used to describe something as situated diagonally opposite from something else.

Cater-corned is mid 19th century in origin. It is usually considered to have developed from a dialect use of cater meaning ‘diagonally’. This stemmed from cater meaning the four-spot on dice, which comes from the French quatre meaning ‘four’. Quatre is from the Latin quattuor, meaning ‘four’.

‘Fewer’ or ‘less’?

November 18, 2015September 7, 2016Hannah McCall 5 Comments

It is common for less to be used when fewer would be appropriate.* The correct usage basically boils down to whether you’re referring to something that can or cannot be counted.

Use fewer with countables and less with uncountables.

If you mean smaller in number, use fewer. This applies when you are referring to people or things in the plural. You can count them, e.g. books, students.

If you mean smaller in quantity, use less. This applies when you are referring to something that doesn’t (normally) have a plural. You cannot count it, e.g. music, mud.

You should also use less when referring to a number on its own and expressions of measurement and time. Less is also correct when referring to age and sums of money. This is because you are referring to the total amount rather than individual units. (This is usually expressed as less than. For example, less than sixty miles, less than £80, less than four years.)

* The use of less in front of nouns that can be counted (count nouns) is not a new phenomenon. King Alfred the Great did it in c.888. The rule against using less in front of plural count nouns is usually traced back to one grammarian writing in 1770 (and it was not intended to be as strict as it has become in modern usage). It will be interesting to see if using less with count nouns becomes acceptable once more.