9 Perfect Ways to Improve Your Proofreading Skills

We all know that proofreading is important—it doesn’t matter if you’re a native speaker or just learning English. Nothing is worse than turning in a project you worked hard on, only to discover that it’s full of typos, misspellings, and grammatical mistakes. But proofreading your own writing is tough. Sometimes your brain sees what you meant to write instead of what’s actually on the page.

Luckily, there are tactics you can use to make proofreading easier. Give these nine proofreading techniques a try and catch your writing mistakes before your readers do.

1 Give it a rest

When you have to edit your own work, it’s a good idea to take a break after you finish writing. Do something else for a little while. Your brain needs some time to forget a little bit about what you wrote. When you come back and start proofreading, it will be easier to look at your work from the perspective of your readers. If English isn’t your native language, this is especially important. You’ll spot mistakes you missed before because you’ll be reading what’s actually on the page instead of just remembering what you meant to write.

2 Print it out or change the font

Make your document look less familiar by changing the format. Try printing it out, changing the margins, or changing the font. When the text looks different from what you’re used to seeing, you’ll pay more attention to it and you’ll be less likely to start skimming.

3 Read your work aloud

Reading your writing aloud will help you find sentences that are hard to understand. Did you need to stop and breathe in the middle of a sentence? That’s a good indication that the sentence is too long. Are there places where you stumbled over your words? Your readers will get confused in those spots too, so it’s a good idea to rewrite them.

Added bonus: this is always a great trick for improving your English pronunciation!

4 Read backward

Start at the last word of your document and work your way to the beginning, one word at a time. This is a great way to spot misspellings and repeated words. Reading backward helps you concentrate on individual words without getting distracted by the topic of the sentence.

5 Use your finger

The best proofreaders have one thing in common. When they are proofreading, they read very, very slowly. If you’re naturally a fast reader, it can be surprisingly difficult to slow down and really examine your writing. Try using your finger to point at each word as you’re reading. It’s a good way to force yourself to stop and really look at everything you’ve written.

6 Keep a list of mistakes you make often

Nobody likes being reminded about past mistakes, but in this case, a list of them can help you avoid making the same mistake twice. Maybe you tend to mix up “there” and “their,” or maybe apostrophes and possessive nouns give you trouble. Write down your most common mistakes and make a note about the correct usage. Keep the list near your computer so you can easily refer to it while you’re writing. Having the answer handy will save you time in looking it up. Over time, you’ll probably find that you need the list less and less.

7 Pay special attention to titles, headings, and lists

Titles and headings are the first things people look at, but it’s surprisingly easy to overlook mistakes in them. Double-check every title and heading in your document. If your document contains a numbered list, make sure the numbers are in the right order.

8 Double check prepositions you aren’t sure about

English prepositions (words like in, on, to, from, by, about) are tricky. Often, they don’t follow a logical pattern. Do you comply with a request? Or do you comply to a request? A tool like Google Ngram Viewer can show you which phrase is more common in English. It’s a helpful starting point, but remember that the tool won’t define the phrases for you. You’ll still need to check a dictionary if you aren’t sure about the meaning of the preposition.

9 Check your writing with Grammarly

Grammarly’s online writing app not only checks your spelling and grammar but also suggests style and vocabulary improvements. You can create a free account and upload a document, or you can download the free Grammarly browser extension, which will correct your spelling and grammar whenever you write something online.

Grammarly’s AI-powered products help people communicate more effectively. Millions of users rely on Grammarly every day to make their messages, documents and social media posts clear, mistake-free, and effective.

A version of this post originally appeared on Kaplan International’s blog.

How to Accept a Job Offer (Examples and Tips You Should See)

Accepting a job offer isn’t as simple as saying, “I’ll take it! When do I start?” It’s important to make sure you and your employer have covered all the bases and there’s no confusion. It’s best to accept a job offer with a letter of acceptance.

What to Look for in a Job Offer

Prior to the official offer, you may take part in a brief little dance (sometimes called a supposal) where your potential employer says something like, “Suppose we want to offer you a position. What would we have to offer in order for you to accept?” Once you’ve negotiated the terms, it’s time to seal the deal.

Here’s a tip: The time to negotiate your salary and benefits is before you’ve accepted the position. If you’ve had a strong interview (or series of them) and you’re anticipating being offered a position, it makes sense to prepare to address these things in advance. Knowing what you want is half the battle.

Except in the most informal cases, your future employer should then extend an offer to you in writing. The offer should lay out:

• Your salary
• Your benefits package
• Your start date

Here’s a tip: If the employer doesn’t extend a written offer, it’s a good idea to request one. You can subtly prompt the employer to send you something in writing by saying, “I’m excited to get to work! I’ll review the terms of your written offer just as soon as I receive it. When would you need my response?”

How to Write an Acceptance Letter

You’ve got the job! Now it’s time to show your new employer they’ve made a good investment. You polished your resume and cover letter, so give your acceptance letter the same attention. Make sure you proofread your letter carefully. (May we suggest a helpful personal editor?)

Here’s a tip: Read your letter aloud to yourself before you send it. Reading aloud helps you recognize problems with flow and syntax—the parts you stumble on as you speak might need some rewriting.

Be sure to express your gratitude for the job offer. You’ve been given an opportunity, and your acceptance letter is a great time to show how excited you are to get started. Think about what you’re looking forward to the most. Maybe you’re amped about contributing your creative energies to projects, or you’re on board with the company’s mission, or you’re ready to dig into a project you’ve been told about. Go ahead and say so!

Keep your letter short and sweet, but do include these elements:

• A thank-you for the opportunity
• Verbiage that says you accept the company’s offer of employment
• Your title
• A recap of the salary and benefits as you understand them
• The date you expect to start

Job Offer Acceptance Letter Example

You can send your acceptance letter by snail mail or email. If you send a hard copy letter, format it like a business letter with your contact information at the top.

Here’s a tip: If you’re unfamiliar with business letter formats, word processors like Google Docs and MS Word have handy templates you can use.

If you’re sending an email, include your name in the subject line and the words “Job Offer Acceptance.”

Here’s what the body of your message might look like:

Dear Cecilia,

I was excited to get your phone call yesterday. I’m writing to formally accept your employment offer for the Social Media Manager position at XYZ Company. Thank you for the opportunity to put my skills to work making XYZ’s brand shine across multiple platforms.

As we agreed, my starting salary will be $52,800 per year with two weeks of paid time off. I understand that health and dental benefits will be available after ninety days of employment.

If there’s anything you need from me prior to that start date, or any documents I should bring on my first day, just let me know. I’m eager to dig in and get started on November 6, 2017.

Thanks again,

Paul

“Have You Reached ‘Dad Goals’ Status?” Quiz

Being a good dad takes a lot of work, love, and sacrifice.

Being a great dad takes something a little extra . . .

. . . a certain humility



. . . and toughness with tenderness.



The best dads aspire to ultimate #dadgoals—like choreographing a routine to “Let It Go,” making Halloween costumes a priority, or being there when things get hard. This quiz mixes fun and honest questions to help you understand if you’ve unlocked the ultimate dad goals status.

What do you think? Did we get it right? Share your reactions in the comments.

Where Do Ninjas, Zombies, and Robots Come From?

English is a language made up almost entirely of other languages. Between the fifth and seventh centuries, tribes from lands that would become Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands showed up in Britain. The languages they spoke developed into Middle English, butted heads with Old Norman (pre-French), and, in Shakespeare’s time, got a dose of Latin and Ancient Greek. Along the way, individual words from a host of other languages were added to the mix.

Nowadays, we use all sorts of words we don’t even realize come from other languages. And with the amount of communication, travel, and migration across great distances happening today, the evolution continues.

Here are ten loanwords—words “borrowed” from other languages and incorporated into English, often with a slightly tweaked meaning—to illustrate the huge amount of non-English in the English language.

1 Aiyo Originating in the Dravidian languages of southern India (that’s Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu), aiyo is one of the newest English additions. It was adopted by the Oxford English Dictionary in October 2016 and defined, simply, as a phrase “expressing distress, regret, or grief; ‘Oh no!’, ‘Oh dear!’.” But according to commentators from southern India and Sri Lanka, where the phrase originates, “Oh dear!” doesn’t come close to capturing the range of meanings it can convey. Many extreme emotions can be expressed with these sounds, from disgust to fear to joy. So many meanings in one exclamation—aiyo!

2 Alcohol In Arabic, al-kohl (الكحل) originally meant a fine powder of certain chemicals, and Latin adopted the word alcohol in the thirteenth century. Since fine powders were thought of as being “distilled” from other things (based on how people thought about alchemy and medicine in the Middle Ages), the meaning merged with other things that had been distilled. The word showed up in English in the sixteenth century, and by the mid-eighteenth century the “spirit of wine” was in full swing.

3 Chocolate Let’s face it: “chock-lit” is easier to pronounce than cacahuaquchtl. That sweetest of sweets came to English by way of Spanish, but started out as an Aztec beverage made of cocoa powder (try saying cacahuaquchtl five times fast) and other spices—not the sugary treat we’re used to today. That’s one theory; others postulate that it comes from Aztec words for “bitter water,” or Nahuatl for “beaten drink,” or that cacahuaquchtl was changed by Spanish conquistadors to combine the Maya word chocol (hot) and Aztec atl (water). Why? Because caca can mean another thick, brown thing in Spanish, and no one wants to be mixing up chocolate with feces.

4 Money The thing that makes the world go round goes way back (understandably). Middle English adopted moneie from the Old French word monoie, meaning “coinage, metal currency.” Even farther back, there’s the Latin word monēta, meaning “place for coining money” or “coin,” which comes from the goddess Juno Moneta, who was worshipped in a temple in or near a mint. There’s proof for folks who think money is divine.

5 Ninja In English (and especially Hollywood), a ninja kicks butt in all black and a mask. But in the original Japanese, a ninja was a spy—not a sneaky martial-arts maniac like we’re used to seeing, but one who was supposed to blend in. Today, “ninja” retains its warriorlike connotation, but it’s also used in a range of situations to imply stealth, cunning, and skill. Just ask a kitchen ninja, tech ninja, or gaming ninja if you don’t believe it.

6 Penguin Most penguins waddle their tuxedo-clad selves around the Southern Hemisphere, but the word “penguin” is believed to come from the Welsh pen gwyn, meaning “white head.” Sure, penguins don’t have white heads, but the name was originally used for the now-extinct great auk, which also didn’t have a white head, but did have white spots around the eyes. When sailors rounded the tip of South America around 1580, they spotted a “foule, which the Welsh men name Pengwin”—that is, a bird that resembled the great auk. It’s still known by the name the Welsh sailors bestowed upon it nearly five hundred years ago.

7 Robot A long time ago, in a galaxy over in Central Europe, robots emerged as the brainchild of a Czech sci-fi writer in the 1920s. Long before C-3PO and R2-D2 roamed the galaxy, Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R.—short for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”—introduced the idea of artificial people created to work for “real” humans. And (spoiler alert) they end up rebelling against humanity. Since robota in Czech means “labor, drudgery,” it’s hard to blame them. And that idea clearly sticks in the imagination, since robots are about as common as warp drives and lightsabers.

8 Schmuck In American English, “schmuck” is an insult; it basically means “fool” or “idiot,” but with a slightly harsher and more Yiddish ring to it. However, it derives from the Yiddish word shmok, which means “penis,” so some Jewish communities consider the word extremely vulgar. In another twist, shmok is believed to come from Old Polish smok, meaning “grass snake, dragon.” Maybe that’s where J.R.R. Tolkien got the name for Smaug, who is definitely a smok in terms of fire-breathing deadliness, but not exactly a schmuck—though Bilbo Baggins might not agree.

9 Uber This originally German word, complete with umlauts (über), traveled a windy road before it arrived at its present-day English meaning. Its literal German meaning: “over.” Figuratively, it implies that something or someone is bigger or better (like the Übermensch, a kind of philosophical Superman). It first got used in English to mean “very, super.” For example, “I’m über excited” or “that party was über cool.” Today, of course, many city-dwellers know it as a way to get a ride with a few taps of a finger.

10 Zombie This one’s origin is a little uncertain—but chances are you’re not going to be pondering etymology if one of them is trying to eat your brains. The word probably comes from a West African language: zumbi means “fetish” in Kikongo, and nzambi is a word for “god” in Kimbundu, but the idea arose—not from the dead, but for the first time—in Haiti during centuries of slavery. The idea was that slaves who committed suicide to save their bodies from the cruelty of their masters would be condemned to wander for eternity, undead. The brain-eating part came later.

English has borrowed plenty from other languages, but it’s a two-way street: words like le weekend in French, párking in Spanish, and intānetto (Internet) in Japanese are becoming increasingly common around the world. Whether you see language evolution as uber cool or something to cry aiyo! about, understanding how linguistic borrowing takes place can make you a real language ninja.

Mustache vs. Moustache: Which Is Correct?

• Mustache and moustache are both correct spellings of the same word.
• Mustache is the most common spelling in the United States.
• Moustache is is used in other English-speaking countries.
• Mustachio is usually spelled without an “o” in the first syllable, although in the UK it is commonly written as a plural: mustachios.

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From the pencil mustache of John Waters to the bushy moustache of General Melchett, upper-lip hair comes in variety of styles. It also comes in two different spellings.

Mustache vs. Moustache: What’s the Difference?

The difference between a mustache and moustache is only in the variety of English that’s used to spell it. In American English, the preferred spelling is the one without the o—mustache—although moustache is sometimes used as well. An American might write something like this:

No matter how hard I try, I can’t grow a big mustache.

In the United Kingdom, and in other parts of the world where English is more like the British variant than the American one, the preferred spelling is the one containing an o—moustache. A Brit might write:

I’m tired of grooming my moustache; I think I’ll shave it off.

Occasionally, people use mustachios to refer to large or elaborate mustaches. It’s common to drop the s in the United States:

After five years of preparation, Peter is finally ready to enter the mustachio competition.

A common slang term for mustache is stache. In Australia, however, they call a moustache a mo, and we have this slang term to thank for the word Movember.

Examples

Mustache in the US

Your mustache should extend farther than the end of your lips, but to a reasonable degree.

Business Insider

In the beginning, Lyft drivers mounted big, furry mustaches to the fronts of their cars.

Wired

Moustache Outside the US

Over 50% of men across the UK struggle to grow a moustache, says a survey commissioned by ChilliSauce.

The Daily Mirror

But he has unwittingly continued a proud tradition of fast bowlers with as strong moustaches as in-swinging yorkers, including New Zealand’s greatest ever bowler Sir Richard Hadlee.[/examples]

Mustachio Examples

The Washington Times

Am I not denying other barbers the opportunity to cut my hair, shave my chin, and perhaps clip my mustachio?

The Guardian

The tears ran down his cheeks, and the drops hung on his mustachios – but not a muscle was distorted.

Stuff

Mustache is not the only word that’s spelled differently in American English and British English. Some words lose an u in American English, like color; others lose an l, like canceled; and there are those spellings, like cheque, which are very different in American English.