Contents page – think of the reader who has to wade through it. Is there really a need for chapter headings (1), subheadings (1.1) and sub-subheadings (1.1.1) all with lengthy descriptions? If your contents page is itself longer than a page it’s too long. Call me a minimalist, but a chapter-heading page is plenty. Also, I’m one of the proofreaders who will need to redo every page number when the piece is finished.

Introduction – or the enigmatically titled ‘abstract’ opening paragraph. More often than not the notion of abstract is horribly apt since it’s rare to be able to figure out what’s coming next. And isn’t that the point of the Introduction? To set out what’s coming up? Perhaps lecturers and question-setters should abandon the word abstract, since it seems to encourage people to be more, well, abstract when they should be descriptive.

American – far be it from me to offend our American friends but unless you’re at an American university, don’t forget to include U’s in words, get rid of those double spaces, and stop saying organization. Unless it’s the World Health Organization. Then it’s ok because their website says Z. I mean, I know a Z rather than an S can be technically used in the UK, but it just looks wrong. If I can’t imagine seeing it in a UK newspaper, I tend to get rid, unless I’m told to keep it in. I love America, I just got back from my 15^th visit there, but let’s hold out against the corruption of our language. I don’t want to correct any more colors or favors (as shown in my previous article: what is proofreading). Actually, I’d rather spend time thanking you for taking Simon Cowell off our hands.

Tenses – please, make your mind up. You undertook the research, you read the journals, you carried out the experiments, and you sent out the questionnaires. It’s all happened. Past tense. I once proofread a book that was supposed to be a diary format Bridget Jones type thing: it was in the present tense. It’s a diary!

Bad signs – when the filename is misspelt. I’m fairly sure a mess lies within when the filename is ‘foor proufreding’, ‘reflaction draft’ or ‘disserstation proofreading’.

References – this is really another case of make your mind up. APA, Harvard, none? Half your journal titles are in italics, the other half aren’t. A third of your author names are written out (John Smith), a third are initial/backwards (Smith, J.) and the final third are forwards (J. Smith). The book title has Capital Letters On Each Word, the date of the publication is in (brackets), then the book title is in lower case and the date is at the end, even after the publishing house. Also, it doesn’t impress anyone to have a bibliography of 50 books. Actually, I take it back: I enjoy fixing it all; it’s one of my favourite things to do, so keep making a mess.

Photos/diagrams/graphs/figures – I once proofed a document about the thrilling world of outdoor air conditioning. As in, flue systems in Middle Eastern countries, which was, one might say, written in a dry style. Most pages had diagrams of said flue systems and airways constructed in outdoor courtyards. Hey, someone has to learn about this stuff. These diagrams were small, numerous and each had a number and description. But with 5 on each page, every other page, the figure names were all over the place. And of course it was impossible to tell which description matched which diagram, since I’m not up on my outdoor airflow structure dynamics. People, don’t overload the pages with diagrams. You’re on a word count limit, not a page count. Bigger diagrams are fine, spread them out a little, there’s nothing wrong with giving my/the lecturers’ eyes a break.

Formulae – I am a Mac snob. So I’m going to proffer that this problem is mine (and my Mac brethren) alone. If you have ‘macros’, whatever they are, in your document, spare me a thought. I can’t see them; all I get are little question marks inside boxes. If the document opens at all it constantly crashes, I can’t proof what I can’t see. Actually, this little request is more directed at developers – please make Word work for Macs better. Which brings me to…

Word – I’m not a Gates hater, at all, but his products are just terrible. Ok, maybe Excel has some good points, but PowerPoint sucks. And yet here I am, making my living as a person completely tied into Word. My Mac, in the four years I’ve had it, has crashed three times. My copy of Word crashes at least twice a day. Mind you, at least I don’t have to use it to write, I just use it to proof. Oh wait, I’m in it right now. Damn. Ok, better wrap this up; a crash can’t be far away.

Now, these aren’t going to be all of the different writing mistakes that you’ll make when creating your first novel, writing that award-winning dissertation, or a CV that shines. But, you can see the different elements that crop up in papers every time I read through them. It’s okay if you don’t want to follow the list though, as I’ll be happy to look over your work when you send it in to be checked and reviewed by Supaproofread.

Related posts:

1. Common Mistakes Revisited
2. Seven Business Writing Mistakes You Should Avoid
3. The Five Most Common Errors

Bidding for work on eLance and GetAFreelancer is a great source of profitable work and as you would expect, I'm frequently asked to provide samples of my work. That's nothing unusual and I'm happy to do so, however when a project provider asks for 500 words on a topic they specify as a sample, I shy away. The reasoning is simple, if 10 people bid, that is 10 articles produced and it has cost the project provider precisely - £0! If you're asked to provide a sample on a specific topic, by all means do so but keep it below 200 words unless they are going to pay you.

A friend of mine, Dawn, writes poems as a way of getting through her daily drudge working as an administrator in a retirement home. Over time she has accumulated quite a collection of very funny poems and I am in the process of editing and arranging them into some sort of order suitable for publishing. Dawn has already encountered the "vanity" publisher who for a fee will publish her work and promises worldwide exposure. Vanity publishers have their place if you wish to publish your writing for use as a commercial offering to promote your company or simply as an off-the-wall Christmas present to friends and family. In the real world, vanity publishers have very little to offer a writer in terms of editing, presentation and most of all, marketing your work. Stay away from any agent or publisher who asks for money upfront!

If you have a new client asking you to do some work, it pays to check them out beforehand. You can do this simply by using Google and at the very least you are looking for some sort of presence such as a legitimate website or a listing in the Yellow Pages. Be wary of new clients asking you to produce large amounts of work - new clients rarely do this in real life, preferring a test project being completed before giving you larger projects. You may get caught up in the excitement of winning a decent sized writing commission only to be disappointed when the work is delivered but payment does not materialise. If the client happens to be in another country, just what are you going to do?

Following on from this, even if you have an existing relationship with a client, do not be afraid to ask for some money upfront or in stage payments as you deliver a large project. If a client baulks at doing this, then you should be wary of taking the project on. I've only been left unpaid once, and fortunately for a small project, but the bitter after taste is still with me so take notice and don't let this happen to you.

You can also help yourself by not broadcasting your inexperience as a writer. Many budding writers still have their day job to handle, or are otherwise engaged in the child rearing and domestic industries and are writing to put some extra money into the budget. While there is nothing wrong being a stay-at-home mum (I'm after all a stay-at-home dad) you don't need to tell a potential client. I'm not saying this is a guaranteed way to attract a scam artist, but some people will definitely take advantage if you let them.

One golden rule is always, and I mean absolutely always, get the payment terms sorted out before you start any work. Establishing what you are going to be delivering is also crucial. What you are looking to do here is to specify exactly what you have to produce and when and how you will be paid. Bear in mind that a project provider may also be new to using a writer so adopting a straightforward professional approach will demonstrate a business attitude that can only reflect well upon yourself. The real benefit however, is to make sure everyone knows what their obligations are and when to deliver on their promises.

Related posts:

1. Moving Off The Web
2. Is my writing good enough to get paid for it?
3. Selling Yourself As a Writer

Now, communication is not a problem. Anyone who has been talking in forums, chat rooms, or sending instant messages for any significant amount of time will be able to decipher the following conversation:

Girl #1: Btw, r u n T gtg gf

Girl #2: DEGT

Girl #1: ?

Girl #2: ihnc

Girl #1: brb

Girl #2: hb

Girl #1: muah

OK, that might be a little exaggerated. But, that is how bad it gets. Anyone coming in on that conversation who is not familiar with the language is lost unless they have the pocket-size internet slang handbook.

But see, that’s the thing. Communication is not in jeopardy. As humans, we will always know how to communicate. But, writing is different. Writing has rules and internet slang is starting to impose itself onto the written word.

So, I thought I would revisit the topic and make a few things clear. These are common mistakes so don’t feel alone. But, they are so common that they need highlighted…more than once…all over the place.

It’s and Its

This is actually a confusing rule that I don’t blame anyone for getting wrong. It’s the reverse of what you would think. So to make it easier for you to remember, just make a note to yourself that this is the rule opposite to all others.

When “It” owns something, the word to use is “Its.” There is no apostrophe even though there is ownership. In anything else, an apostrophe “s” would belong in an expression of ownership. While Bob’s ownership is proper with an apostrophe “s,” its ownership is not.

The contraction of “it” and “is” is written with an apostrophe “s.” That’s why this rule is so weird. But, ownership and contractions both have an apostrophe “s” when it comes to anything else like “that’s interesting” and “what’s the problem.” It would be very confusing if “it” and “is” were written the same as if “it” owned something. So, it’s easier this way.

Know and No

This is so common that it makes a person’s head spin. Sometimes people use “no” in place of “know” just to simplify things. That’s ok online in informal communication situations. But, this is one of those errors that bleed over into homework and work papers.

“Know” is having the knowledge of something. I know you know that.

“No” is the negative. There is no way the two should ever be confused again.

To, Two and Too

These three homonyms are often switched. It mainly comes from the substitution of “2” for any of these three words. I’d like it 2 stop.

“To” is actually a preposition that begins a prepositional phrase. So if you’ve heard the rule, you can’t end a sentence with a preposition. That’s because if it’s supposed to begin a phrase, how can it do that at the end of a sentence? Therefore, “to” is basically a connector from one part of a sentence to another that adds more meaning.

Remember the cloud analogy? A preposition is anything you can do to a cloud. You can go “under” a cloud, “over” a cloud, “around” a cloud and “through” a cloud. Technically, you can also go “to” a cloud. So, these words give you a general understanding of the purpose of a preposition. There are other prepositions like the word “of,” but you can’t “of” a cloud. So, our cloud analogy only gives you a general rule that helps you learn the basics. It’s a starting point and you build from it.

It’s probably easier to understand the word “to” if you learn the other two. “Two” is the spelling of the number. We’re going over three homonyms, but we’ve only covered “two” so far.

“Too” is an adjective. It comes before a noun or an adverb. I’ve written way too much about these three homonyms.

Once you start to see how your informal communication practices are bleeding into your actual work, you’ll look at your papers a little closer. Supa proofreaders already know these common errors and many others. We’re geared to pick them up instantly.

But, it’s not hard to catch them yourself if you put your work up for a few days and then come back to it just before the due date. You’ll see your errors much clearer and I’ve said that over and over. I think I’ll keep saying it just to keep reminding you guys.

Related posts:

1. The Five Most Common Errors
2. Common Mistakes in Written English
3. Pet Peeves: Because Correct Grammar is Simply Forgotten Sometimes

• Improper Use of the Apostrophe – It is used generally in two cases. One for contractions (don’t for ‘do not’), and secondly for showing that something belongs to someone (Bobby’s pen would mean this pen belongs to Bobby). If you are ever in doubt, leave the apostrophe out. It generally causes more confusion if you introduce an apostrophe where it does not belong than it does to omit one.

• i.e. vs. e.g. - These two Latin abbreviations are very useful to modern writing only if you use them correctly. The Latin phrase id est. means “that is,” so i.e. is a way of saying “in other words.” It’s designed to make something clearer by providing a definition or saying it in a more common approach. Whereas, the Latin phrase exempli gratia means “for example”, so e.g. is used before giving specific examples that support your assertion.

• Loose vs. Lose – One of the more common errors of bloggers and copy writers is to distinguish between loose and lose. It’s so common that one feel’s that ‘lose’ at times can be a proper substitute for ‘loose’, but in reality they are two different words which have two different meanings. Here’s something that will keep you guessing ( If your watch is too loose, you might lose your watch).

• It’s vs. Its - This is another common mistake. It’s also easily avoided by thinking through what you’re trying to say. “It’s” is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” “Its” is a possessive pronoun, as in “this item has lost its value.” Remember this, and it will pay you dividends later. Read your sentence out loud using “it is” instead. If that sounds strange, “its” is likely the correct choice.

• There vs. Their - “There” is used in many ways, including as a reference to a place (“let’s go there”) or as a pronoun (“there is no hope”). “Their” is a plural possessive pronoun, as in “their shoes” or “their bottles.” Are you talking about more than one person and something that they possess? If so, “their” will get you there!

• These little points, when kept in mind while writing will help you avoid common writing errors, and make you a better writer. There it is. So, don’t lose your focus!

Related posts:

1. Common Mistakes Revisited
2. When to Use Who and Whom
3. Going off at a Tangent