The the task of proofreading is complex and time-consuming. In recent years, this particular fact, combined with the related fact that high-quality proofreading is essential for modern publishing, research, journalism, and business, has meant that demand for proofreading services has grown considerably.
Many people – especially first-year university students – believe that proofreading isn’t a task they need to spend much time on.
Given high school students’ limited need to prepare massive amounts of high-quality text within a short timeframe, first-year university students often don’t know how important – yet how challenging – proofreading actually is.
In turn, due to this, they tend not to think that a proofreading service would be worth the investment.
However, if – like most people – you didn’t spot the “double the” in the opening sentence of this article, you may need to think twice about whether to use proofreading services for your next assignment. Don’t beat yourself up, though – very, very few people spot errors like this, the main reason being that our brains are inherently bad at finding these patterns.
As a brief introduction to some of the things you should watch out for when proofreading a document, this article highlights two incredibly common proofreading errors – homophone errors and apostrophe errors – and explains how to avoid them.
1. Homophones
The word “homophone” derives from two Greek words: homos (same) and phone (sound). In English, a homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but that differs in two respects:
- It has a different spelling
- It has a different meaning
Examples of homophones include:
- Peace and piece
- Right and write
- There, their, and they’re
- To, too, and two
- Principal and principle
- Hear and here
- Compliment and complement
The homophones included in the list above are frequently overlooked by writers, and oftentimes even by professional proofreaders. For this reason, if you encounter any of these words – or, as a matter of fact, any homophone – in your writing, be sure to pay extra attention to ensure they are used properly.
2. Issues with apostrophes
After homophones, incorrect use of apostrophes is one of the most common writing errors. Even after a piece of writing has been proofread, it is common to find problems with apostrophes.
Examples of problems with apostrophes include:
- Example 1
- Incorrect: I’m going to John’s and Jill’s party.
- Correct: I’m going to John and Jill’s party.
- Example 2
- Incorrect: Its hard to know who did it.
- Correct: It’s hard to know who did it.
- Example 3
- Incorrect: Adults shoes are usually more expensive than childrens’ shoes.
- Correct: Adults’ shoes are usually more expensive than children’s shoes.
Correcting issues with apostrophes requires adequate knowledge of punctuation rules in written English. Therefore, to safeguard against errors like this creeping into your writing, be sure to Google about a rule if you’re uncertain.
Using a professional proofreading service is also a viable option, but it’s expensive compared to Googling when uncertain. Also, it may not be as sustainable an option as reminding yourself of the rules governing apostrophes.
Professional Proofreading Services 