If you are editing typescripts, here are some classic mistakes to look out for.  It is absolutely vital you do not leave these errors.  They will make you look very careless and for essay proofreading or for dissertation editing, mistakes could lose the writer valuable marks.

1. Its/it’s – Remember that this is an exception to the possessive apostrophe rules:
   
   • Its means “belonging to it”.
   • It’s means “it is”.
2. Your/you’re
   • Your = “belonging to you” (the “you” can be singular or plural)
   • You’re = “you are”
3. Their/there/they’re
   • Their = “belonging to them”
   • here = refers to a place or used as a pronoun “There was a time…”
   • They’re = “they are”
4. i.e./e.g.
   • i.e. = “in other words”
   • e.g. = “for example”
5. Transposed letters

   These are errors that crop into typed work because the typist has put their fingers down in the wrong order, for example, for/fro, from/form. The spell check doesn’t pick these words up because they are proper words – they just shouldn’t be in this part of the text. This sort of mistake is fairly common and highlights the need for human editors to read through text (rather than just running a spell check). Slow your reading speed down and make sure you read every word.

6. Consistency

   If you allow the text to use “center” in one place and “centre” in another, this will be jarring for the reader. Decide at the start whether you will be using US or British English spellings. If you are editing work for a publishing house they will usually tell you that there is a particular style guide that you should use. Sometimes you will have to make choices about each inconsistent word that you come across. Record your decisions. When you have finished your edit you will have a list of editorial decisions that you have made which you will pass back to the publisher. These will be used to instruct the typesetter.

7. Gender

   Consistency also applies to gender. In a bid to be politically correct some writers will start a sentence referring to ‘he’ and then switch to using ‘she’ to refer to the same person as the sentence or paragraph continues. This can be confusing or annoying for the reader. If you (or the writer of the text) wants to vary the gender for politically correct purposes that is fine, but do make sure that the meaning of each sentence and paragraph remains clear.

   Are their particular English grammar errors that you find easy to miss? Share your proofreading tips our readers! Post a comment below. For more advice on how to edit see our blog post on professional editors’ duties.