Toni Noel
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Blog - Warning! Do You Trust Your Eyes?

2/5/2012

7 Comments

 
You shouldn't. Writers often think something is on the page when it isn't, a word they meant to type, but didn't.

This is contest judging season. One recent contest entrant wrote, "She looked away in discuss," when the author meant disgust. Spell checker doesn't catch this kind of mistake. Another pair of eyes perhaps would.

Updated software versions make a writer's life easier. I often type it's when the apostrophe is not needed. I turn on the 'Non-Print Formatting Characters' when I write. My word processing software underlines anything the software authors consider a problem. If I've typed it's and should have typed its, a little green line shows up under the word. All I have to do is figure out why, and correct my mistake.

Learn to use all the features of your software. Then, as the final step before submitting your manuscript or posting a blog, ask a trusted reader to read what you've written. Not a sister or good friend. Find someone who knows mistakes creep into our writing like ants sneak into my house on hot, dry days.  Your job as a writer is to identify the mistakes on a written page and eliminate them from the printed page.

 Twice while writing the paragraph above a little green line showed up, once to show me I'd pluralized a word that didn't need it, another time to show me to add an s to a word that should have been plural. Trust your software.

Let's see if my software catches a mistake in verb tense.  He look at her with a question in his eyes. Yes, a little green line appeared beneath look to show me there is a problem. If I make the present-tense verb past-tense, the green line goes away. I often see the wrong tense of verbs used when I'm judging manuscripts, and most often with the word look, perhaps because this word is often overused. 

The ease with which a word processor allows a writer to revise a sentence can also shoot you in the foot. Watch out for mistakes in verb tense.

In writing this I noticed a green line I could not explain beneath a word followed by a comma. I deleted the comma and the green line went away. I'm not sure I trust my software that much. I'd rather have too many commas than not enough. I want the reader to understand what I've written, not have to go back and read the sentence again to determine the meaning.

So, update your software, find a trusted reader you can depend on to find the numerous typos, missing words and punctuation errors we all make.   

7 Comments
Bob Richard
2/5/2012 06:53:54 am

Hi Toni,

Thanks for your insightful comments. I struggle with toward and towards. Sometimes Word corrects what is correct already. When I feel this about a word, I look it up.

Bob

Reply
Toni Noel link
2/5/2012 08:53:05 am

Toward gives a lot of writers a problem. Without the s is the American way.

I put problem words like this on my Search Word List and, before submitting the MS, search on each of the words on the list one at a time and revise, reword or eliminate.

That has become my editor's pet peeve, so it is now mine, too, but it is almost impossible to eliminate all of them.

Toni

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Lisa Kessler link
2/5/2012 12:44:07 pm

Great blog Toni!!!

I don't know what I'd do without my first readers... Their eyes see all sorts of things that my brain reads correctly! LOL My eyes breeze right over it without seeing...

Second sets of eyes are definitely a huge help! :)

Lisa

Reply
JackieLeighAllen link
2/6/2012 01:34:30 am

I also use the underlining feature, but some of the things it doesn't like are pretty ridiculous. Jackie

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Janice Seagraves link
2/6/2012 05:03:44 am

I have Microsoft word, but it doesn't catch wrong word chooses. Although the more recent one does catch more. A lot more mistakes are caught when you read out loud or better yet have someone read it to you. I also have a text to speech program so I can hear my story.

Janice~

Reply
Toni Noel link
2/7/2012 07:44:04 am

Jackie and Janice, you are both right. The important things is learning to accept that the writer could very well be wrong and check it out.
Thanks for your welcome input.

Toni

Reply
Eugene Dating Site link
10/11/2013 07:32:29 am

Anyone know where I can find more information?

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    Toni Noel enjoys  writing romantic suspense and contemporary romance, reading, gardening and walking her dog Jack in Southern California.  

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