Sunday, November 6th, 2005, 2:53 am
Proofreading Habits
Filed under:
NE fact which I am fully aware of is that I have typos in my blog. That is much as I expect. I regularly spot these when it is already too late to be worthwhile correcting.
I would like to write a few words on the way I check for the correctness of text. Before publishing an item in the blog, I read the whole message entirely (single proofreading pass), which includes a slack glance at the markup. Having done so, I quickly spellcheck the text and then validate the markup in order to spot structural inconsistencies or typos in the markup. Lastly, I have another quick and sloppy read, which assumes the first read was sufficient for eradication of typos.
¨Life is too short to proofread¨ is a quote/motto that I go by. ‘Typo paranoia’ can be time-consuming and is by no means enjoyable either. I am more lenient and sloppy when it comes to E-mail, mailing lists and newsgroups, with an exception where my bosses are involved. I rely mainly on the spellchecker and sometimes I re-read the text once, at the very end. By worrying less, I increase my capacity for writing, at the expense of quality.
