Punctuation and Capitalization

Really? Add this diatribe to the long list of things I thought I’d never have to say in public…

During the ol’ teachin’ days, one of my recurrent sermons afforded me the opportunity to expound about the virtues and responsibilities of proofreading. If I said it once… Proofread. Proofread. Proofread.

Read every sentence. Out. Loud. Go to the end of your essay or your paper or your narrative or whatever it might be. Read the last sentence. Out. Loud. Does it sound the way you want it to sound? Does it stand alone?

YES? Continue with the next-to-the-last sentence. NO? Fix it! And so it goes, all the way to the opening line. YES, in reverse!

Specificity and brevity are your friends. (More so for speaking, but, it applies to the printed page, too.) “Spell Check” does not catch every mistake. Grammarly is not the Holy Grail.

Proofread. Proofread. Proofread.

“Do you have all your stuff? Is your phone charged? Did you proofread?” Sophia and Miles are undoubtedly tired of hearing me say it. I would be, too, if I were them.

We’ve all seen the signs. National chains. Local businesses. Billboards. Newspapers. Magazines. Television captions. All over social media. All. Over.

Carelessness? Expediency? “Just” a mistake? Probably a conglomeration of “all of the above.”

Well… S.T.O.P.

It’s frustrating. It’s exasperating. It’s irritating. Proofread!

On top of all that, the authors of incorrect compositions frequently come across as stupid.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT: I’m not sorry for the unintentionally mean, uncomfortable, accurate things I’ve said.

Last night, Sophia had a field hockey game. Our team was not victorious. Disappointing, but, it happens.

As the victors, players from the opposing squad decided to troll Sophia’s team with a social media post, including the final score.

Just one problem… They failed to proofread their post. The punctuation was correct. The capitalization was correct. The score was not.

It wasn’t funny. It was wrong.

I encouraged Sophia to create another social media post. I thought it should say something similar to, “At least at Reagan, we have advanced math classes! We know… Counting can be hard.”

She did not. She’s better than me.

Anyhow. The point IS… Proofread! It doesn’t take talent. It requires effort.

Until then, you (the NON-proofreaders) are on notice. The rest of the world will continue to make fun of your misguided, poorly informed dissertations. Until you do better, nobody will take you seriously. Really.