This column offers some tips and strategies that can improve the proofreading process you use. To be clear, I use the term proofreading to refer to the final stage of editing. Of course proofreading can never take the place of earlier stages of rewriting or revising for organization, content, clarity, or conciseness. But this final stage of editing is crucial, because it is where you identify and fix any problems with spelling, grammar, and punctuation that leave your document looking less than polished

Henke, Melissa N.

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University of Kentucky

University of Kentucky UKnowledge Law Faculty Popular Media Law Faculty Publications 11-2016 Polishing Makes Perfect . . . Or Maybe Not Melissa N. Henke University of Kentucky College of Law, melissa.henke@uky.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/law_facpub_pop  Part of the Legal Writing and Research Commons Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits you. Repository Citation Henke, Melissa N., "Polishing Makes Perfect . . . Or Maybe Not" (2016). Law Faculty Popular Media. 43. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/law_facpub_pop/43 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Faculty Publications at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Law Faculty Popular Media by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact UKnowledge@lsv.uky.edu. Polishing Makes Perfect . . . Or Maybe Not Notes/Citation Information Melissa N. Henke, Polishing Makes Perfect . . . Or Maybe Not, 80 Bench & B. 32 (Nov. / Dec. 2016). This article is available at UKnowledge: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/law_facpub_pop/43 ou read over the brief several timesto make sure it was perfect. Youwere certain you made all necessarycorrections. You even fixed the danglingmodifier on page four. So you filed thebrief and served it on opposing counsel.And then you found it-right there onpage one-a glaring typo.Sound familiar? Most of us have had anexperience like this one time or another.Perhaps it has happened more times thanyou care to admit. You may even havewondered whether the time spent proof-reading is actually worth it, especiallywhen it seems impossible to make thedocument perfect. Well, the answer is yes.While proofreading is time-consuming, apolished document is important for yourcredibility as a writer and lawyer. Consid-er the following quote from a text devot-ed entirely to editing strategies for legalwriting: "When you are not careful abouta little detail, like where an apostrophebelongs, your reader will begin to doubtwhether you were careful about other, big-ger things."2'this column offers some tips and strategiesthat can improve the proofreading processyou use. To be clear, I use the term proof-reading to refer to the final stage of edit-ing. Of course proofreading can never takethe place of earlier stages of rewriting orrevising for organization, content, clarity,or conciseness.3 But this final stage of edit-ing is crucial, because it is where you iden-tify and fix any problems with spelling,grammar, and punctuation that leave yourdocument looking less than polished.'Leave yourself plenty of time to take breaksfrom the document you are proofreading.If you have a day or two to set the docu-ment aside, then by all means, take it. Ifnot, an hour or even 20 minutes away fromthe document can help clear your head in a32 I NOVEMBER/DECEMBER2016way that affords the fresh outlook neededfor effective proofreading. Bryan Garnerrefers to this technique as "distanced edit-ing," which he says "will lower the chanceof your 'reading' what you intended to sayinstead of what you actually said." 6As I often tell my students, proofread-ing a document on the computer or tab-let screen is not the most effective way toedit. Instead, print the document so thatyou can proofread with a hardcopy of thepaper and a pen.7 Read the document veryslowly and, if possible, read out loud soyou are sure to read each word.8 this is atip I have incorporated into my own edit-ing process for years. I find that by readingmy text out loud, I am more likely to heargrammatical errors than when reading thetext silently to myself.One careful proofread is usually notenough. Instead, build in time to read thedocument over from start to finish, andthen do it again, and perhaps even again.With each read, look for different types oferrors. For example, I read the entire doc-ument looking only for spelling and othertypographical errors. Then I read the en-tire document again, this time looking forgrammar and punctuation errors. If youknow there are specific grammar or punc-tuation rules that give you trouble, youmay want to break this second stage downeven further to review the document sepa-rately with those particularly troublesomerules in mind, and then again for all othergrammar and punctuation rules.Checking your spelling, rather than re-lying exclusively on a spell check, willensure you find unfortunate or even po-tentially embarrassing typos.9 Perhaps theauto correct function tried to fix an error,but did so incorrectly. For example, yourspell check will not necessarily appreciatethe difference between the words "princi-pal" and "principle." Or perhaps the spellcheck did not flag an error because theword you used is a word, just not the oneyou meant to use. For example, you meantto use the word "their" but instead typed"there."The spell check will not catch thiserror. this advice likewise applies to yourcomputer's grammar checker, which maybe even less reliable than the spell check.Remember that incorrect punctuation canaffect the meaning of text or cause anunintended ambiguity. Consider the fol-lowing example I use with my students:Correct punctuation:"Let's eat, Grandma."Incorrect punctuation:"Let's eat Grandma."Create a personal proofreading checklistthat incorporates the above tips and tech-niques. Next, add in tips about specificgrammar and punctuation rules that arecommonly misused. More than one re-source I reviewed suggests including thefollowing tips on your checklist:* Check for sentence fragments orincomplete sentences.* Check for effective use of parallelstructure.* Check verb tense and subject-verbagreement.* Check for proper use of commas,semi-colons and colons.* Check quotation marks.* Check apostrophes (proper use ofplurals and possessives).12Finally, keep track of errors you make of-ten, and then add those to your personalIchecklist.3 'this last step is important be-cause proofreading is a learning process,and a personal checklist will help you learnto avoid making the same mistakes in thefuture.'Find and use one of the many respectedstyle guides or handbooks that are avail-able, which include shorter resources thatcan serve as a quick reference,5 as well aslonger resources that offer more detailedguidance.6 In addition to print resources,some writers find well-known online re-sources to be helpful and accessible. '7Remember that writers are humans, andthus we all make mistakes. One legal writingprofessor offers the following sound advicein response to this reality: "You'll becomea better writer if you learn from those mis-takes, but you'll gain nothing by dwellingon them."8 So stop dwelling on the typoin the document you filed last week. Focusinstead on the document you are draftingtoday. My proofreading tips and strategiesare not meant to result in perfection, butthey can help ensure the time you do de-vote to the final stage of editing will re-sult in a more polished finished product.MELISSA N. HENKEis the Robert G.Lawson & WilliamH. Fortune AssociateProfessor of Law andthe law school's di-rector of Legal Re-search and Writing.Henke teaches legal writing. She is a mem-ber of the Legal Writing Institute and theAssociation of Legal Writing Directors.Prior to joining UK Law, she was an asso-ciate professor of legal research and writingat the Georgetown University Law Center.Before she began teaching full-time, Hen-ke practiced law with the Washington,D.C., firm Hogan & Hartson (now Ho-gan Lovells), where she represented cli-ents in a wide range of commercial litiga-tion matters, including breach of contractand business torts, and defended againstnationwide RICO and state class actionsinvolving the healthcare field. In 2007 and2008, she served as the senior associate inthe law firm's premiere pro bono practicegroup, litigating high-impact and individ-ual pro bono matters involving civil rights,employment discrimination, wrongful con-victions, and immigration. Before joiningHogan & Hartson in 2002, she clerked forJudge Gary Allen Feess of the U.S. DistrictCourt for the Central District of Califor-nia. She also served as an adjunct professorof legal research and writing at the GeorgeWashington University Law School in the2004 and 2006 academic years.Henke earned her J.D. with highest honorsfrom the George Washington UniversityLaw School in 2001, and graduated sum-ma cum laude from the University of Ken-tucky in 1998.ENDNOTES1. Professor Henke is the Robert G. Lawson&William H. Fortune Associate Professorof Law and Director of the Legal Research&Writing Program. She is a graduate ofthe University of Kentucky and the GeorgeWashington University Law School.2. Megan McAlpin, Beyond the First Draft:Editing Strategiesfor Powerful Legal Writing(2014), at 105.3. Id.4. Id.5. Jaclyn M. Wells, et al., Proofreading:" Where DoIBegin?, The Online Writing Lab at PurdueUniversity, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/561/01/ (last visited Oct. 3,2016).6. Bryan A. Garner, Redbook: A Manual on LegalStyle, §13.5 (3rd ed. 2013).7. Wells, supra note 5.8. Id.9. McAlpin, supra note 2, at 117.10. Id. at 119.11. Deborah Cupples &MargaretTemple-Smith,Grammar, Punctuation & Style: A Quick Guidefor Lawyers and Other Writers (2013), at 61.12. McAlpin, supra note 2, at 108-37; Cupples &Temple-Smith, supra note 11, at 61.13. McAlpin, supra note 2, at 108.14. Id. at 139.15. E.g., Cupples &Temple-Smith, supra note 11;Richard C. Wydick, Plain Englishfor Lawyers(5th ed. 2005).16. E.g., Garner, supra note 6; William StrunkJr.& E.B. White, The Elements of Style (4th ed.2000).17. E.g.,The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Pur-due (Purdue Univ.); Grammar Girl (MignonFogarty).18. McAlpin, supra note 2, at 139.NEW FROM THEUNIVERSITY PRESS OFKENTUCKYW.RITINGt LEGALRECORDEmbodied in the stories of these earlyreporters are the rich history of theCommonwealth, the essence of its legalsystem, and the origins of a legal printculture in America.WRITING THE LEGAL RECORDLaw Reporters inNineteenth-Century Kentucky$50.00 hardcover I Ebook AvailableTALES FROM KENTUCKYKENTUCKY LAWYERLAWYERS Mac SwinfordWilliam Lynwood $19.95 hardcoverMontell$17.95 paperback0000WWW.KENTUCKYPRESS.COMBENCH&BAR I 33

Polishing Makes Perfect . . . Or Maybe Not

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Polishing Makes Perfect . . . Or Maybe Not

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