The importance of self-proofreading

The importance of self-proofreading

Our brain is a code-breaking machine and we can read a piece of text without noticing some misspellings on it. This is why it is important to self-proofread everything we write. This is particularly important for translators.

At Monica Machado Translation Services we proofread every job on paper, as this method offers a better way to detect spelling errors. It is quite impressive the number of mistakes we can easily overlook when reading on a screen. To test this, see how easy it is to read something even when the letters have been swapped round:
For emaxlpe, it deson’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod aepapr, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm. From http://www.ecenglish.com
/learnenglish/lessons/can-you-read.

Although spelling tools in Word are precious to avoid some of the instances above, not all mistakes are picked by these tools. Some words are well written but in context they reveal to be like a typo. For example, when we write “pens of thousands” there is no misspelling on it, but in context this makes no sense… because probably we meant to write “tens of thousands”. The machines don’t pick on everything, so it is really important we
self-proofread our work.