Anyone who's known me for more than ten minutes knows how I feel about proofreading. I think everything should be proofread before it's published or printed. That goes double for restaurant menus.
Here at wordsintotype, I don't have my own personal proofreader. But I can make a good case for one. Yesterday I posted a piece about capitalizing headlines ("Is You Is or Is You Ain't?"). To my horror, I noticed later that it contained a big fat error. I had used the word capitalize when I meant lowercase. I fixed it, but not after a lot of people saw it and thought what a schmo I was.
Most people's writing needs proofreading. It is a rare person who can write flawlessly and have the distance to effectively proofread her work too. I've been an editor and proofreader for years. I can almost smell a mistake—in other people's work. Once I write something, I cease to be able to see it objectively. My weaknesses are leaving out words, transposing words, and (see above) simply using the wrong word.
The spell-check tools in word-processing programs are great. People should use them. But proofreading is so much more than misspelled words. It takes a human being to notice when the wrong word is used or a factual error has been made. Most companies don't hire proofreaders anymore because they don't understand what proofreaders do and therefore don't value their skills.
Who knows what errors this post contains. Sadly, there are probably a few unemployed proofreaders out there who could read this and let me know.
I rest my case.
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