It is difficult and sometimes impossible to pick up our own
errors in the documents we write. Even with the best will in the world and the
most assiduous efforts we all miss our own mistakes that another person will spot
immediately. There is a very good reason for this, as outlined on an interesting
article I recently came across. Apparently, the human mind is set up to
mentally replace errors with the correct version – which really isn't much
help! Interestingly, one technique is for people to check their own work by reading it backwards, sentence by sentence. However, as the writer of the article says: “It is always better
to bring in another set of eyes.” Why is this? Another set of eyes represents another
person, another mind – and, most importantly, an objective stance.
The main problems, however, arise in the new wave of e-books
and self-published books. E-Books can
emerge in a jumble due to the conversion from the original by Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) software which is not equipped to pick up all the characters.
It takes at least one human, or at least many readings, to ensure that the result
is 100 per cent error free, comprehensible and able to be enjoyed by the reader.
As for self-published books, these are very often checked
only by the author before publication – say no more! Most self-publishers do
not pass their documents to an editor or proof-reader for checking, and so
typos are missed. That would be bad enough in itself − but add in an author’s
difficulty with spelling and grammar and the result is very disappointing for
readers who expect the usual high standards found in conventionally published
books.
The bottom line is that it is ALWAYS a good idea to use a fresh pair of eyes for all
work that is intended for publication!
