English Proofreading
For Lawyers, By Lawyers

Neglecting to review your writing: Risky behaviour

12/05/2020

So, you’ve written a masterful email or maybe a letter, essay or factum. Even though English is not your mother tongue, you figure it’s fine. You always manage to communicate with the locals when you visit London or New York, so there’s no need to have your writing reviewed by someone else, you figure. You simply give it a quick read-through and press “send”.

Wait! Not so fast!!!!

Never proofread your manuscript yourself. You are too close to the content. You know what you wrote, so you read what you’re expecting to see. The danger is that you are likely to overlook even the most obvious mistakes, not to mention more subtle errors.

At WeProofread.it, our trained legal professionals, whose mother tongue is English, will look for:

  • Spelling mistakes

The spell checker will not catch homonyms. For example, none of the following words will be highlighted by the spell-checker in a word processor:

  • It’s a tell-tail sign writers are not readers.
  • I kneaded sum bred and milk
  • I past by the store
  • Their, they’re, there
  • It’s vs. its

Yet, the above points are filled with spelling mistakes!

  • Grammatical errors

Overuse of adverbs, run-on sentences, excessive wordiness, ambiguous pronoun references and overuse of a passive voice are common weaknesses that detract from the writer’s message.

 

  • Punctuation

Does the question mark go inside or outside the quotation marks?

Have you omitted commas? Or perhaps you’ve used too many commas?

  • Consistency

The UK and the US use different spellings (e.g., neighbour vs. neighbour; colour vs color). Even if you’ve decided to stick with UK spelling, have you consistently done so throughout your document?

  • Repetition

Repeated use of the same terms can grate on the reader’s nerves. It is best to employ synonyms for improved flow.

  • Formatting errors

Inconsistent use of bullet points or misalignment of margins are distracting to the reader. A proper review will catch such errors and eliminate the aura of a lack of professionalism that they project.

At WeProofread.it, we edit your work to ensure it is the best version of what you want to say. Come see us at https://weproofread.it/

 
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