Guerrilla Proofreading

Posted by Terence P Ward Oct 19, 2009

It's not something that I'm very proud of, but I'm a guerrilla proofreader. Wherever I go online or off, errors just pop out at me and beg for correction. I'm not so bold as to spray-paint over signs that, for example, confuse it's and its, but it's much more difficult to stay the quell my inner editor when I see a blog post or news article that refers to "this data" when a quick glance at the rules of peculiar plurals show that these data are plural, but this datum is singular.

But the one that is most likely to get me to send an unsolicited comment or email is the phrase "ATM machine" and all of its brethren, as they show that the writers are using acronyms without actually knowing what they stand for.

I wish I could stop this uninvited correcting that I do, because English is a tough language and even native speakers need some slack cut from time to time, but my Little Voice invariable pipes up and tells me that in this way can I keep the language from descending into madness.

I don't entirely agree, but I'm helpless to stop. I apologize to any reader who has been thus stricken, and offer some additional tips to stay my uninvited editor's pen:

• Proofreading and editing tips to catch easy errors.
• Using Yours and Theirs Correctly
• Purdue's Online Writing Lab