While I’m on a kinetic typography kick, I thought I might share an amusing video that demonstrates the difficulty of proofreading one’s own work, even with spell check. The narrator’s voice is annoying, but his message is clear.
One suggestion: Use “text to speech” software to read your documents back to you. Hearing another “person” reading one’s prose is a humbling experience. Try it; you’ll be amazed at how many errors—especially missing words and sentence fragments—you will catch as the voice reads to you. The best software is manufactured by Ivona, whose voices actually take appropriate pauses and use inflections. (See: http://www.ivona.com/en/). Both Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat products have text-to-speech capabilities, though both use mechanical voices. For free on-line text to speech, use Google Translate (http://translate.google.com/) or From Text to Speech (http://www.fromtexttospeech.com/) or Smart Link (http://www.text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/).
Another suggestion: Hire a proofreader. I have found Ivy League Proofreaders to be a good value. Check out: www.ivyleagueproofreaders.com.
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