What is . . .

'What is is what is not is not is not that it it is'
becomes
'What is, is. What is not, is not. Is not that it? It is.'

Silly, really.

Test your proofreading skills

How good a proofreader are you or your staff?

To celebrate summer/the Olympics/the start of the footy season/someone’s birthday/an anniversary we are giving away 100 five-minute proofreading assessments. These assessments are used in Proofamatics workshops to measure the improvement in participants' skills - usually, by the way, a 30% reduction in proofreading errors.

To claim your free assessment, and a copy of our invaluable Proofamatics guide to grammar, punctuation, spelling and capitalisation, simply e-mail us on info@proofamatics.com with your name, company, address etc.

We have 100 to give away - first come, first served.

I hope you are well?

Just received an e-mail from a company which started with 'I hope you are well?' 


I suspect the writer didn't mean what he said. He was probably asking after my health, though goodness knows why - we've never met and I may work from my bed due to a congenital illness, for all he knows. (Have you noticed how call-centre calls all start with this unnecessary question? Thus making them even more annoying than they are). What the writer actually wrote was that his hoping was in question. Personally, I would caution him against exposing his inner doubts in this way. 

The e-mail was promoting a Professional Written Communication Skills Training Course. Nuff said.

First and only

Tautological adspeak and poor at that. You can't be 'first and only'. When you were first, you were the only; if you are the only, then you were, and are, the first.

You might consider 'the first and still the only'. Don't: 'only' is sufficient here. However, 'still the only' works as a shorter, punchier, phrase and makes a point about your uniqueness and the lack of serious competition. And it's the same number of words as the first, incorrect effort.

There, that was easy, wasn't it?

A simple proofreading system

It isn't difficult to proofread but it can take time to do it efficiently - unless you have a system. Reading straight through the document and hoping for the best usually doesn't work that well. It leads to reading for comprehension and then you read what should be there, rather than what actually is there.

A simple system is required:

Concentrate You can't be on the phone, listening to the radio or having a conversation with colleagues and expect to be able to spot errors

Break up the text There are various ways of doing this. You could, for example, break the document into columns and read straight down each column; you could jump around the document reading 'blocks' of text (this is good for checking hard data such as values, quantities etc.); try reading the second half of the line before the first half (tricky, but effective)

Concentrate See above

Don't look for all types of errors at once There are too many types of errors to find them all in one go. Be prepared to scan the document two or even three times to find different sorts of errors. For example: hard data, then grammar, then typos

Concentrate Getting the message?

Finally, skim the full document Having found all, or most of the errors, read through the document, fast, to check that it makes good sense.

And don't forget to c*********e.

Waterstone?s

A further nail in the coffin of the apostrophe? Waterstone's, a purveyor of books on all subjects - including English grammar and punctuation - has decided to drop the apostrophe from its name to make it easier for users in this digital age. One can only assume that they are busy tearing pages out of the grammar books they purvey and that their usually educated and helpful staff are being put through emergency English lessons.
Howls of horror from the Apostrophe Protection Society, as is only right but, one suspects, not much other negative reaction as few people actually know the rules and, it seems, even fewer care.
Perhaps Mr Daunt, the current MD, comes from Birmingham where they decided to drop the apostrophe from all road names a couple of years ago.
Three cheers for the march of progress, then?

Patronisingly, he said . . .

Just heard a 'social commentator' say, rather patronisingly, that the Duchess of Devonshire (she called her Kate, so I assume she knows her well) doesn't do a good job of patronising British designers. Personally, I think it's very easy to patronise the designers of some of the catwalk creations trotted out each year. Little dears. But, of course, the 'social commentator' didn't mean that. She meant it in terms of 'being a patron' and purchasing their wares. (The D of D is apparently rather more sensible in her, rather stylish, buying habits. She even wears some of her outfits more than once!) That aside, however, the comment illustrated how one word can mean two very different things and how careful a speaker/writer should be when using them. Or perhaps it was her new word of the day - he said, patronisingly.
Just noticed that the Blog editor keeps wanting to put a 'z' in the word. No.

Mea culpa

Just received an e-mail pointing out a grammatical error in my first post. Don't look, I've corrected it now. I'd like to say something along the lines of 'even the best of us', but that seems a moot point now, not to mention an obviously unwarranted claim.
The error was a missing apostrophe, one of my personal betes noir, so there is no excuse. It does help prove one point, though - spell cheque is knot enough.
Thank to Alicia Helman, self-described would-be proof reader, for putting me right. Not so much of the 'would-be', Alicia.

At last

At last, the new website is up. Proofamatics On-line users can log in from the home page, new users can purchase an on-line workshop and devotees of the Proofamatics guide to grammar, punctuation, spelling and capitalisation can purchase directly or download an interactive copy.

In case of fire

Wandering around Asia and staying in high-rise and high-star hotels, I keep being told not to use the lifts. On nearly every lift there is a notice 'In case of fire do not use lift'. Does the management really mean that we shouldn't use the lift in case a fire breaks out? This would inconvenience a lot of people in high-rise hotels in high-humidity regions.

What the notice is trying to say is 'When there a fire, don't use the lift'. The insertion of 'the' would solve the problem. 'In the case of fire do not use lift.' OK, it sounds a little clumsy but it is English.

PROOFAMATICS ON-LINE

In recognition of all those people who can't get to a Proofamatics workshop we have launched Proofamatics On-line, an eight module e-learning workshop available to individuals or in-company groups. Go to www.proofamatics.com to find out all about it. You can get a FREE week's trial of the workshop by getting in contact with us.

ERRORS ARE EXPENSIVE

The letters, documents, proposals and marketing materials a company produces are a measure of the organisation. If they contain spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and incorrect punctuation, then the wrong message is being sent. If written communications are faulty, what does that say about the quality of the products, services and people?

Proofreading errors can affect every letter, proposal, invoice and purchase order an organisation produces. They are noticed and remembered by customers, suppliers and colleagues. They can even result in lost business. They reduce the effectiveness of Quality and Customer Service programmes; they damage the company’s image and reputation. And they are remembered...

There are three levels of errors:

-       -  the highest level is those that leave the company and end up on a business associate’s desk. They can have a simple, negative impact on the way people think about you. Worse, they can be returned, usually to senior management, causing mayhem and retribution inside the company

-     - the second level is those errors which are noticed inside the company before they leave the premises. Their negative impact is minimised, but the responsible department is thought the less of and Quality programmes come into disrepute

-        - the level that no-one ever sees is those errors which are ‘self-corrected’ by the person who made them. This is the most frequent and, whilst no damage is done, the reduction in productivity is both immense and hidden

How does an organisation overcome this problem?

You could: 

-        - rely on spell check: most pea sees have won, but you can knot bee shore that it will c every miss take. It certainly will not notice if not is not there

-       -  check each other’s documents: a splendid way of reducing productivity and a rule that will fall into disrepute within days

OR

-        - teach secretarial, administrative and customer service staff a system of proofreading that works.

Everyone responsible for producing any document that reflects on the organisation should be able to proofread their own documents quickly and efficiently. They should have good grammar, punctuation and spelling skills. They should, in other words, be trained to do the job that is expected of them.

Proofamatics, available from Sindall Jackson Associates Ltd (go to www.proofamatics.com) meets these training requirements. Widely used by commercial, financial and government organisations, in a one-day or two-day workshop it teaches a system of proofreading that measurably reduces errors by 30%. It is designed to be run in-house by the client's staff, or trainers can be supplied.

As business gets tougher, no-one can afford to give the edge to the competition.