Esther Chilton

Check, check and re-check!

This week’s tip is a reminder for you on the perils of not checking your work. I always leave my stories and articles for a few days before going back over them and I’ve been amazed at the silly mistakes I’ve made. Nod if you’re with me here – they range from missing speech marks, to using the wrong type of ‘there’, to changing a character’s name…and so on. When you’re caught up in the moment and your writing is flowing, grammar and punctuation often take a backseat, but they can make all the difference in a story or article being accepted.

With my students’ assignments, I can’t always leave it several days before checking my comments on their work so I have to be super vigilant when I read back through them. I almost made a hideous faux pas the other day. A student was wondering why her stories weren’t being accepted. She’s good and sometimes it’s simply down to a matter of perseverance before you break into a market. So I wanted to write, ‘You’re not doing anything wrong’ and that’s what I thought I’d written. When I read it back, I’d written ‘You’re not doing anything well’, which would have put a completely different spin on things! I’ve also almost thanked a student for sending in his ‘s***’ story when I meant ‘short’ story.

You have been warned! It’s so easy for a careless mistake to slip through.

P.S. Apologies to any student out there for any faux pas which have slipped through!

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Have a great weekend. Here’s my Friday Funny: