Proofreading

Recently I was given a new text book for my adult class. It was published by the company that runs the school. At first glance, it was pretty cool, very up-to-date. Whenever I get a new text I like to scan through it and familiarize myself with the material. The topics covered in the book are good and pertinent to the adult students. Sadly, the English syntax is a mess! I started reading the first unit and came upon a few mistakes...I jotted them down so I could show them to my boss. After about 20 pages, I had found about 10 pretty bad errors and was getting frustrated. How can you publish a book with so many obvious problems?? I decided it was my mission to go through the entire text (about 125 pages) and see what I can find. It took me a few hours and I managed to identify 77 problems. It was shocking. 77 mistakes in 125 pages, that is awful.

I decided to explain each mistake on a little post-it note and stick it to the page where it occurred. After I finished, I made a photocopy of each of the pages that contained an error. I gave the stack to my boss. She was amazed that I was able to find so many. Moments later, she mentioned that the head-office might want me to come work with them after seeing what I had accomplished with this book. I have always enjoyed doing that kind of work and perhaps I would take them up on the offer, who knows?

I am certainly not an expert in grammar, but I can hold my own. I make far too many errors when posting on this here blog. Perhaps I should turn off the TV and/or radio when spewing on Blogger?...lol