Proof That a Proofreader Is Essential

I was having a lovely lunch with my parents when I spotted this menu board.

As we all know, a proofreader is never off duty!

How many mistakes can you spot on it?

One?

Two?

Or maybe even three?!

Someone had put a lot of thought into this board.

They thought about how to entice their customers by starting with a rhetorical question. They’ve used great colours to attract the eye. They’ve even thought about a bit of artwork!

Then, WHY did they make three mistakes?

These mistakes haven’t been made because the writer has been careless. After all, a lot of care and attention has been put into the creation of the menu board.

The problem has been explained by Tom Stafford, a senior lecturer in psychology and cognitive science in the Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield. He says, “When you're writing, you're trying to convey meaning. It's a very high-level task.”

That means, the person who wrote this menu board was thinking about how to persuade their customers to spend more of their money on a hot drink.

The high-level task of creating their own ideas meant that their brain missed the small, but important details such as spellings and punctuation.

"We don't catch every detail. We're not like computers or NSA databases," said Stafford. "Rather, we take in sensory information and combine it with what we expect, and we extract meaning.”

Because your brain is focused on something high-level, it misses the smaller things…your brain will read what it thinks should be there and misses the mistakes.

Have you ever written ‘teh’ instead of ‘the’?

You may have used ‘form’ instead of ‘from’.

Or ‘loin’ instead of ‘lion’!

If we take on board Tom Stafford's research, it means that a writer is carrying out a high-level task when they're in the ‘creating’ phase. So, they’re likely to miss the odd mistake here and there.

This is why using a proofreader is a vital part of the writing process.

A proofreader will spot those little mistakes.

Here's a few reasons why a proofreader is essential:

• When we read a sentence, our brain predicts the words that are likely to come next based on the context of the sentence. This helps us understand the text more quickly.

o   But a proofreader will read each word that IS in the sentence. 

• Our experiences, expectations, motivations, and background influence what we expect to see, hear, or feel. So, if you're reading a passage about pets, your brain expects to see certain words related to pets and won't read the words that are there.

o    But a proofreader will read every word that IS on the page.

• When we read familiar words, we often recognise them by their overall shape rather than analysing each individual letter so we can read faster. This increases the likelihood of making mistakes.

o   But a proofreader will see the letters that ARE in the word.

• The words around an upcoming word encourage us to make a prediction. For example, “The postman was bitten by the …” will encourage your brain to predict the next word will be something related to that situation.

o   But a proofreader will read the word that HAS been used.

• We often skim over high-frequency words because we're familiar with them, and our brain will gloss over mistakes in these words because it expects to see familiar words or phrases. Our brains fill in the letters that we believe should be there but they're actually missing.

o   But a proofreader WON’T assume what’s there.

Proof that a proofreader is essential, don't you think?

If you're a writer, and you're almost ready for your document to be published or shared, get in touch with Sage Proofreading & Copyediting Services.

Trust a proofreader to erase errors and inaccuracies.

Trust me.