Although this topic hasn't been explicitly discussed in class yet, it's one that I have always felt to be important as a writer. We have all discussed how vital engaging one's audience through accurate factual research can be, but haven't addressed how credibility can be forfeited when a writer chooses not to proofread their work. When a writer publishes a piece, they of course hope to be taken seriously, whether the piece is a work of fiction or an academic article.
However, when a writer publishes their work and a reader notices obvious grammatical errors or evidence of poor spelling skills, the reader will automatically assume the writer doesn't fully understand what they are talking about. This may be a false assumption, but when presented with sloppy writing, it is an easy assumption to make. A researcher may spend hours finding credible evidence to support their claim, but if they don't spend the same amount of time editing their draft, all that time and energy will be for naught. This is why I always re-read my drafts several times over, and even ask others to read my drafts for me in case I let anything slip by. I'm not trying to imply that everyone need be an exceptionally skilled writer. Everyone has their own talents and interests, and writing research papers is certainly not everyone's forte. That doesn't mean that as writers we should all be satisfied with producing carelessly proofread material. Try your hardest to produce the best papers you can every time, and as you practice honing your writing skills, you will become that much more trustworthy as a writer and researcher.
Emily Manno
To begin, I agree with Emily completely on the importance of proofreading. When writing any type of report or essay, the writer should always proofread their work to make sure everything is stated correctly and in a formal context. Whenever I read a piece of work, if I see some type of grammatical error, I automatically think that the reporter is unprofessional and does not know how to report their ideas accurately. Also, if I was the person in charge of hiring clients at a large company, the first thing I would look for is accuracy in their responses on the application. If there are a large amount of mistakes, I would not hire them because of their lack of willingness to check their work.
ReplyDeleteBeing a member of Emily's group I must say that she brings up a good argument. I have always thought of proofreading as being a pivotal element in writing a paper. It isn't nearly enough to have good ideas or arguments. One must articulate them or write those ideas in an orderly fashion that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI myself always send my papers to a family member or friend to check anything. I've also found the writing center here at IUP to be a necessary tool as well. They teach you techniques that improve your writing and proofreading skills.
agree with Emily that proofreading is extremely important. When there are any type of error in a paper it makes the writer seem unprofessional and unreliable. If a paper has any number of mistakes it will seem sloppy, like the writer didn't care enough about what he/she was writing to go back through their work and fix their small mistakes. Also if there are errors in the actual content of the paper that would completely defeat the purpose of the paper. It is very necessary to always read through your work before you make a final draft to make sure what you have written is reliable and true.
ReplyDeleteThe audience wants to see accuracy in what they are reading, especially if what they are reading is a research paper persuading them to take on another view of the topic. If a writer does not proofread their work they are putting their work at risk of being sloppy and unprofessional.
Proofreading (for myself at least and many others I suspect) must be done out loud to be effective.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read my work subconsciously I know what I want to say and miss the mistakes I have made. Somewhere between my brain and my fingertips a logical thought/sentence gets garbled.
So to go along with the original posting, I have to agree and say that if you don't proofread your work you will simply look like an idiot
I feel that proofreading is often overlooked. While most people do use spelling and grammar checks fairly frequently, actual proof reading, that is reading their own work critically and trying to see what they need to specifically change, often goes overlooked. Most people do not read their own work, or for that matter another person's work critically. Rather it has been in my experience that few people read other's work critically. Too many people just assume that someone's work is correct with little to no debate or question as to why. This is something that I feel needs to change. People need to carefully proofread anything that they read so that if changes need to be made a person can learn to do it themselves.
ReplyDeleteJeffrey says,
ReplyDeleteProofreading, as Emily pointed out, is vital when presenting a professional piece of work such as a research paper. A research paper is supposed to be written accurately and professionally, with supported claims and evidence. If grammatical errors are noted in the final piece, it turns the “formal” document merely into an implausible work of research. The reader may not even possess a care in the world to believe the claim you try to support whenever your evidence is just bunch of gibberish. It will turn the full attention of the audience away from the topic you, as the researcher, are striving to address. Re-reading over your finished work will provide and manufacture a piece of professional art. Hence the reason why you draft before actually submitted final credentials.
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Emily's post. I consider myself to be a average writer. And I do not really care for writing all that much, so when I write I do make a few mistakes. I usually go to someone who lives across the hall from me to proofread my work. And because she is good at what she does, she has turned several of my B bound papers into an A paper.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to whether or not people should take you seriously based on grammar or spelling, I also agree. Many "important" people overlook someone who could be an asset to the company because they may have a few mistakes in their paper. And that may actually do more harm than good to the company.
However, if the ones who fill out the application, or do a resume proofread, that will not be an issue. In order to look and sound professional, go the extra mile and proofread.
I definitely agree with Emily about reading and re-reading your draft. I remember from a young age I learned in school that you should always make multiple passes through your draft, because as Emily said no matter how long you spent researching if you do not sound professional or comprehensible the reader will either stop reading out of frustration or because they do not believe the writer
ReplyDeleteEmily’s entry really caught my attention, because throughout my whole life of schooling, proof reading cannot be stressed enough and as I got older, I understood why. When you write a paper, you should always not only proof read it yourself for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, ect, but you should also have someone else proof read your paper for you. When you have another person proof read your paper, you are letting a reader basically see if your paper actually makes sense and if it is easy to understand. By doing this, you are automatically improving your paper, because you are obtaining feedback that is helpful to you.
ReplyDelete-KRISTI QUINN-
Proofreading is essential for not only maintaining your integrity as a researcher and writer, but also to simply gauge if the ideas in your mind are clearly articulated on paper, or if they only make sense to you. I don't know that the authors highlighted this practice, but Emily is completely justified in stating its importance. I totally agree that no matter how profound or novel the author's ideas may be, these thoughts will be forfeited if egregious grammatical errors are found or other basic writing fundamentals are ignored. It is hard to consider an author scholarly if he or she can't make the parts of a sentence agree.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily. Proofreading is very important last touch to put on your paper. When I catch mistakes in magazines or wherever, it’s not so much about the credibility of the paper; it’s that I lose respect for the writer, especially when it’s simple errors. You don’t take the work as serious as the writer might have wanted. You take the whole paper then as a joke and the researcher could have spent years on the topic and research. It doesn’t mean that their research is not good, it’s just the reader is seeing the proofreading errors and that’s all, and that’s what there are going to judge first.
ReplyDeleteProofreading is a very important topic to discuss. Anytime the writer writes a research paper or an essay, they should always proofread, or have someone else proofread, their material. Anytime I’ve had an assigned paper from a professor, I’ve had a friend proofread it or I would go to the writing center so that I can make sure my paper is in the right format and is free from grammatical and punctuation errors.
ReplyDeleteIf a paper is turned in with multiple errors it will seem very sloppy and rushed. It will always be better if someone else proofreads it because a person doesn’t always catch their own mistakes.
I agree with Emily although it may not be a large focus of this class proofreading is essential throughout every writing process. So many people rely on the computer to catch errors in their writing, but this is not always possible. Such as when a person would mix up the words where or wear the computer may not always spot this error like an actual person proofreading it would.
ReplyDeleteProofreading also has to do with credibility. No person wants to put their time and effort into writing something and then have it be completely disregarded and laughed at when grammatical and spelling errors are encountered.
Jessica Young said:
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you Emily. I once attended an excellent research presentation on the importance of a college education. Everything was well prepared and presented with great knowledge. However, near the end of the presentation, there was a slide that contained a misprint of the simplest word. It disappointed me so much that at that point, I reconsidered the credibility of the entire presentation. The presenter had lost my interest, along with many others in the audience. That example just proves how important a simple proofreading can be to a paper or presentation. Don’t be lazy, take that extra step. It will be worth it in the end!
Rachel said:
ReplyDeleteI agree that proofreading is a very important part of the final paper. When I read in a magazine or paper and I see some sort of writing error, it makes me think that the person that is writing the article should know better. That is that person’s job and passion to write articles and I don’t understand why they don’t get their work proofread before they send the article off to the printers. In my personal experience you can write the best paper that you have ever wrote, but If you have a lot of spelling errors, it doesn’t matter how good your paper is your grade will suffer. I think that proofreading is a necessary part of someone’s final work.
I can’t believe that some people skip this important part of writing a paper. I know from experience that I make mistakes all the time and without someone, or the writing center, proofreading it, my paper would have a lot of grammatical error as well as format errors. Plus, having your material proofread just makes it more professional because you want it to be perfect when you submit it.
ReplyDeleteProofreading is a small, but very important part of the writing process. Emily makes a great point when she says that the reader will assume the writer does not fully understand what they are talking about when they have errors in their writing. The smallest mistake, or misspelling of a word, can change the entire meaning of a statement. Having a peer or a supier proofread ones work is a great way to catch mistakes that may have been missed. It is such a small step when writing, but it holds so much importance to the writer's credibility.
ReplyDeleteTrue that if the paper is unreadable because of grammatical errors that people will just lose interest. But even if there are a few errors and the facts are solid then in my opinion would have no problems with it. Proofreading is an important part of any paper and knowing that you can move to another level of writing.
ReplyDeleteProofreading is an important factor that goes into writing a paper. With too many grammatical errors it can cause the reader to lose interest because it is important that your paper flows and with grammatical errors it can make the paper suffer. although a couple isn't bad, always do a rough draft first and find someone that can find your errors that you wouldn't see yourself.
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