Tag Archives: grammar

Hacking Your Proofread

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""What do you do when your piece of writing no longer looks like the ideas, shapely rhetoric, and graceful sentences you put into it but a pool of melting ugh on the page? Ideally, you put it away—for a few hours, a day, a weekend, a decade. But if your deadline is within the hour? Hack the system.

The system, in this case, is your brain. It is so smart that it knows how to read misspelled words and glosses over all kinds of minor obstacles to glean meaning. Also, it doesn’t spend time noticing stuff you’ve already seen; it’s after novelty. This system is great for the survival and development of our species but not so good at catching small (but potentially annoying and reputation-busting) errors in our own work.

How to Trick Your Brain into Noticing Errors

  • Have someone read the paper to you. No one around? Read it out loud to yourself.
  • Print it out. If you don’t usually do that, your brain will pay more attention.
  • Change the font. Make it really big. Make it ugly. If the writing looks good in Comic Sans, it’s probably pretty good writing. (Just don’t forget to change it back!)
  • Change the background color.
  • Change your environment. Usually write at the kitchen table? Take your laptop or printed copy to a coffee shop, a library, your backyard—anywhere you don’t usually work on your writing.

Tech Hacks for Proofreading

Prefer to use an app to help you proofread? Here are some strategies to try:

  • Use a speedreading app, like Readsy (on the web) or RushReader (for mobile). These apps use a technology called Spritz, which presents one word at a time in the same place, so your eyes don’t have to move. The purpose of these apps is to train you to read faster, but if you keep the adjustable speed on a slower setting, they’re great for proofreading, too. Here’s an example of what Readsy looks like in action:

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  • Use a text-to-speech app to have your computer or device read the writing to you. Most devices have some sort of text-to-speech app built in: VoiceOver for Mac and iOS devices; Narrator for Windows, Talkback for Android devices.

Do you have more proofreading hacks? Let us know!

The Singular “They”

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Update: The APA Style Blog weighs in on the singular “they.”

Question

Why can’t I use “they” as a singular pronoun? I tried to use “he or she” instead, but it’s cluttering up my writing! Are there any other options?

Answer

The short answer for students is as follows: avoid the singular “they” in formal writing unless you’re a language-change renegade, you’re working in  a progressive discipline, or you know your professor is OK with it. Use plurals instead.

This is a hot topic, so we created a Slideshare to answer the question.

 

“That” versus “who”

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Question

I am writing a paper for an MLA seminar, and I am wondering which pronoun to use in this sentence:

The researchers concluded that the children ____ had eaten breakfast performed better on the test.

Do I use “that” or “who”?

Answer

“That” is for things or concepts. When referring to a person or people, always use “who.” Using “who” to refer to people makes the writing more graceful, and it also results in more humanist writing. Every person is a “who,” regardless of our differences. Use “who” for people; change the world!