Legend, Inc. Newsletter: Proofreading Is Essential

Proofreading
by Phil Jamieson and Bill Purdin

	The Top Ten Reasons to Pay Top Dollar for Professional Proofreading And Never Look Back ...

10.	Typos and language misuse make you look bad.
9.	You are not a proofreader, and neither are the people who work for you.
8.	People actually do read every word.
7.	Confidence builds until it meets problems, and then recedes twice as fast.
6.	People don't listen if they think you don't care. Bad proofreading is the written equivalent of interpersonal dismissal.
5.	Sentence construction is a brutal business; leave it to the professionals.
4.	Most people think a semi-colon is a small intestine, but the one reader who knows what it is will catch your mistake. That will be the client you were dreaming of.
3.	Great "style" is not a genius flare with unusual words and phraseology: It is a set of rules as complicated as solving a rubics cube. You may think your writing is rich in style, when it really is just rich.
2.	"Usage" is not a subjective term in grammar and lexicography. There are preferred usages and you don't know what they ALL are. You may know some, or even many, but the one you thought you knew but didn't will be your best prospect's pet peeve of misusage.

	and..the Number One Reason to Pay Top Dollar for Professional Proofreading And Never Look Back is ...

1.	Perfection is a team sport, not an individual effort.

Phil Jamieson is president of ProofreadNOW.com,
and a long-time friend of legendinc.com