Brains and Proofreading
Years ago, I sent myself to the principal’s office, gripping a copy of his hot-off-the-press family newsletter.
“Do you realize you’ve just invited parents and caregivers to come to Curriculum Night to ‘relive their children’s fears’?”
“No, I didn’t. I want them to relieve their children’s fears.”
“Well, that’s not what it says in this newsletter. It says ‘relive.’”
He looked at it, banged his hand to his head, and released a primal scream.
I felt his pain.
How Do Typos, Spelling Errors, and Grammar Mistakes Happen?
Most of us graduated from middle school, the last bastion of the weekly spelling quiz. (I said most.) So how come we still spell simple words incorrectly when we type emails and texts?
Our brains. Brains LOVE connections and patterns so much that they share them with other parts of our bodies, in this case, our fingers. When we type, the brain takes over and makes our fingers type letters in its favorite patterns.
For example, I consistently type the word “with” as “withe.” Why? My pattern-crazy brain immediately adds the E that it KNOWS goes with T and H because of a squirrelly article called “the.” The same thing happens when I type other TH-ending words such as width, myth, and the artist Andrew Wyeth’s name. It must really confuse my brain to notice the E coming before the TH in that last one.
Another word I consistently type incorrectly is “weird.” My brain wants to follow the adage, “I before E except after C and when sounded like A as in ‘neighbor’ and ‘weigh.’” It takes concentrated effort to type it before autocorrect kicks in.
Rushing also causes spelling errors and typos. Our brains push us to get to the good stuff, to complete our ideas as fast as we think them. Or maybe we just naturally rush. We all have places to go, people to see, horses to buy. Too often we zip through typing an email and never bother to check our words—or if we have inadvertently hit “Reply All.”
Distractions and interruptions are other big enemies of flawless grammar and spelling. Whenever your concentration is broken, your brain has a hard time getting back in flow. That will cause word omissions or repeats, additional or missing letters, and other enemies of good grammar and spelling to raise their heads.
But I Check My Work. How Do My Errors Get Past Me?
When we go back to check our own work, our brains don’t want to deal with details! They want to check that we have expressed our ideas thoroughly. So, what do our brains do? Our brains take shortcuts, skip words, and skip letters to get to the hot stuff to ensure deep meaning has been expressed. Details derail from that purpose.
There are tricks to proofreading our own stuff. You can slow down, read it aloud, read it backwards, build your spelling skills so you recognize errors, use a dictionary. However, your brain naturally will focus on your ideas, so it’s a good idea to bring on a proofreader.
How Do Proofreaders Catch Errors We Writers Don’t?
Proofreaders are not you. They have no investment in your big ideas. They focus on details, which is a very specific task. Their brains zoom in on spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc., and, therefore, should catch most of them.
Why Human Proofreaders and Not AI?
Don’t ignore AI! There are lots of really good writing apps and programs that catch many grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. They also make myriad editing suggestions, which can take away from the writer’s voice. I use an artificial brain to check my work, but I make sure my voice remains intact and often ignore the rewrite suggestions.
Why You Should Care About Grammar Errors and Typos
Grammar errors and typos impact readers, especially discerning ones. Errors and typos stop our reading flow, distract us, upset our brains, and turn us off. In business documents and emails, they look unprofessional and can damage your credibility as well as your SEO.
They bother readers. When I find a typo (as I recently did in a major writer’s latest book), I wonder how it escaped the eyes of AI and the multiple proofreading professionals. That error took away from my reading enjoyment.
It’s important to remember that errors in print make a writer look sloppy, unintelligent, or—perhaps worse—like you’ve put your hands in the air and you just don’t care. Your writing should reflect the best of you and your talent, so bring on another brain to proofread your writing. A primal scream might make you feel better, but it won’t correct the typos.