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For various important reasons, many students submit their work only at the very last minute of the deadline. That means mistakes are inevitable. After all, working against the clock demands sacrifices.
Proofreading is often the most popular offering to the gods of fortune. On the surface, it looks reasonable, too. How important is grammar when tables need to be filled with important data? Turns out, very.
Not only do students misspell a word here and there, but they leave in entire phrases they typed to themselves in a moment of despair or they forget that the name of the text file is so dirty, it sounds like something Eric Cartman would say. To remind everyone to go through their papers one more time before you click 'Send', Bored Panda has compiled a list of some of the most unfortunate proofreading fails ever, so sit back, scroll down, and enjoy.
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#1
If you want to get better at proofreading your works, experts advise starting by getting some distance from the text. It can be hard to edit or proofread a paper that you’ve just finished. It's still very familiar, and you tend to skip over a lot of errors. Put the paper aside at least for a few hours and go for a walk or something. Point is, clear your head of what you’ve written so you can take a fresh look at the paper and see what is really on the page.
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Next, decide which medium lets you proofread most carefully. Some people like to do it right at the computer, while others like to make a printed copy that they can mark up as they read. If you choose the former, at least try changing the look of your document. Altering the size, spacing, color, or style of the text can actually trick your brain into thinking it's seeing an unfamiliar document.
Find a quiet place to go through the text. Don't proofread in front of the TV or while you're chugging away on the treadmill. Find a place where you can actually concentrate and avoid distractions. This job requires focus.
If possible, do your editing and proofreading in several short blocks of time, too. As with all mental work, your concentration may start to wane if you try to proofread the entire text at one time.
But if you're short on time, try to prioritize. Make sure that you complete the most important editing and proofreading task first.
Good luck, hope your papers don't end up in our future posts!
#30
MrOwlAteMyMetalWorm. 4 years ago
This another level of stupid how can you not even notice while choosing the file?!
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What do you think ?
Olivia Agave 4 years ago
I have dyslexia, ad I had to submit my presentation notes. Now usually I remember to change them into "acceptable for submission" fonts instead of the adapted stuff I use for ease of reading. Well, on time I forgot. That is the story of how I submitted my dissertation idea presentation notes in 24pt Comic Sans.
Cat 4 years ago
While I enjoyed the thread, I'm genuinely confused by how any of them could have happened. I've written too many papers than I care to count through high school, university and graduate school, and now reports for work, and never once have I committed such crimes. I very much intend to keep it that way lol
Big Blue Cat 4 years ago
You live,you learn. If I type down something that has to be fixed before submitting, I put it in bold red or something like that. And I don't type in anything that might hurt someones feelings, just beacause I KNOW my stupid a*s will forget to fix something. But thanks, I got a good laugh out of these. I especially love Professor whats-his-nuts.
Kimberley McMillan 4 years ago
Granted, I went to university before submitting papers online was a thing... but this never happened to me. Ever. Wouldn't have even occurred to me to use filler titles or the like...
glowworm2 4 years ago
I actually corrected this beforehand, but I remember once in class in high school working on a paper, and I accidentally spelled "dictator" as "dicktator." I had a good laugh and immediately corrected it.
Petra Schaap 4 years ago
not in a paper, but at my old work a co worker subtitled the picture of some bird with "poopface" in a brochure.
Eliana Hailu 4 years ago (edited)
This just reminded me that a few days ago I wrote "don't give up" and "YOU BETTER NOT" at the top of my page for motivation and submitted it without deleting it.
Israel Martinez 4 years ago
I'm glad this didn't happen to my daughter when she submitted her essay on why "Gods are D***s" ...
Donna Cheung 4 years ago
This is why for filler words I always just use a bunch of xxxxxxxxx. It's much easier to spot this even when skim reading it.
Rebecca Hager 1 year ago
My Senior Capstone project in college, I submitted my final draft but forgot to change the title from "crapstone"
Andrea Josipović 4 years ago
I wrote a paper on healthy diets in my sisters name. I put "Kale diet- you eat everything except kale" thinking it would be funny when she check the paper. But obv she didn't and turned it in. Stil got a B. :)
Julie Hanford 4 years ago
I find that having MS Word read the paper to me is a good way of proof-reading
Holly Allen 4 years ago
To keep this from happening, bold the things that you're going to fix later. Harder to miss
Tobias the Tiger 4 years ago
I once almost submitted an assignment that was called something like "Title goes here flgjl flhljf fsljffghgf". I caught it, thankfully.
Marnie 4 years ago
A lot of notes about proof-reading your paper before submitting. Wrong. ALWAYS have someone else proof-read your paper. You will often not notice an incorrect thing because your brain will see what you expect to see. You need someone objective. Don't they teach that in school anymore? It's part of the process to have someone else proof read.
Catherine Spencer-Mills 4 years ago
Two BS degrees and most of an MA and my suggestion is to use a word processor - MS Word, Open Office, LibreOffice, whatever - as they have spelling and grammar checker. In different languages!! They will check your bibliography for you, both format and location of citations. If you set the grammar checker to something like "formal" they will catch bad words and phrases. Sheese, people. Make a folder and put the paper and all reference materials in the folder. You can name the folder any old nasty thing you want, but never ever name your paper something stupid. And run it through the writing resource - or whatever it is called on your campus - the nice people there know the style you need to use for your class and will give you good suggestions and corrections. Writing it at 4am the morning it is due, not giving you time for that, is a really stupid mistake.
Tiny Dynamine 4 years ago
Thinking back to when I was at uni in the mid 90s, I remember we would handwrite some of our essays! Computers were still quite new to us and practically no-one would have one at home! This is in the UK, too.
Olivia Agave 4 years ago
I have dyslexia, ad I had to submit my presentation notes. Now usually I remember to change them into "acceptable for submission" fonts instead of the adapted stuff I use for ease of reading. Well, on time I forgot. That is the story of how I submitted my dissertation idea presentation notes in 24pt Comic Sans.
Cat 4 years ago
While I enjoyed the thread, I'm genuinely confused by how any of them could have happened. I've written too many papers than I care to count through high school, university and graduate school, and now reports for work, and never once have I committed such crimes. I very much intend to keep it that way lol
Big Blue Cat 4 years ago
You live,you learn. If I type down something that has to be fixed before submitting, I put it in bold red or something like that. And I don't type in anything that might hurt someones feelings, just beacause I KNOW my stupid a*s will forget to fix something. But thanks, I got a good laugh out of these. I especially love Professor whats-his-nuts.
Kimberley McMillan 4 years ago
Granted, I went to university before submitting papers online was a thing... but this never happened to me. Ever. Wouldn't have even occurred to me to use filler titles or the like...
glowworm2 4 years ago
I actually corrected this beforehand, but I remember once in class in high school working on a paper, and I accidentally spelled "dictator" as "dicktator." I had a good laugh and immediately corrected it.
Petra Schaap 4 years ago
not in a paper, but at my old work a co worker subtitled the picture of some bird with "poopface" in a brochure.
Eliana Hailu 4 years ago (edited)
This just reminded me that a few days ago I wrote "don't give up" and "YOU BETTER NOT" at the top of my page for motivation and submitted it without deleting it.
Israel Martinez 4 years ago
I'm glad this didn't happen to my daughter when she submitted her essay on why "Gods are D***s" ...
Donna Cheung 4 years ago
This is why for filler words I always just use a bunch of xxxxxxxxx. It's much easier to spot this even when skim reading it.
Rebecca Hager 1 year ago
My Senior Capstone project in college, I submitted my final draft but forgot to change the title from "crapstone"
Andrea Josipović 4 years ago
I wrote a paper on healthy diets in my sisters name. I put "Kale diet- you eat everything except kale" thinking it would be funny when she check the paper. But obv she didn't and turned it in. Stil got a B. :)
Julie Hanford 4 years ago
I find that having MS Word read the paper to me is a good way of proof-reading
Holly Allen 4 years ago
To keep this from happening, bold the things that you're going to fix later. Harder to miss
Tobias the Tiger 4 years ago
I once almost submitted an assignment that was called something like "Title goes here flgjl flhljf fsljffghgf". I caught it, thankfully.
Marnie 4 years ago
A lot of notes about proof-reading your paper before submitting. Wrong. ALWAYS have someone else proof-read your paper. You will often not notice an incorrect thing because your brain will see what you expect to see. You need someone objective. Don't they teach that in school anymore? It's part of the process to have someone else proof read.
Catherine Spencer-Mills 4 years ago
Two BS degrees and most of an MA and my suggestion is to use a word processor - MS Word, Open Office, LibreOffice, whatever - as they have spelling and grammar checker. In different languages!! They will check your bibliography for you, both format and location of citations. If you set the grammar checker to something like "formal" they will catch bad words and phrases. Sheese, people. Make a folder and put the paper and all reference materials in the folder. You can name the folder any old nasty thing you want, but never ever name your paper something stupid. And run it through the writing resource - or whatever it is called on your campus - the nice people there know the style you need to use for your class and will give you good suggestions and corrections. Writing it at 4am the morning it is due, not giving you time for that, is a really stupid mistake.
Tiny Dynamine 4 years ago
Thinking back to when I was at uni in the mid 90s, I remember we would handwrite some of our essays! Computers were still quite new to us and practically no-one would have one at home! This is in the UK, too.
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