5 Proofreading Habits You Should Adopt Immediately

5 Proofreading Habits You Should Adopt Immediately In a blog published on his website Career Talk Pro, writer and consultant Brian Hirth lists a collection of some of the worst résumé typos and faulty word choice examples hes seen. However hilarious they might be to read over in retrospect, the job seekers who submitted these words and phrases in their résumés and cover letters likely didnt find the lost opportunity funny.Here are a few of the most egregious mistakes:i am a prefectionist and rarely if if ever forget details.Proven ability to track down and correct erors.Lurnt Word Perfect computor and spreadsheet pogroms.Develop an annual operating expense fudget.In my 3rd year of BA houners English.Received a plague for salesman of the yearMy role included typing in details of accounts, customer liaison and money-laundering duties.Extra Circular ActivitiesAt secondary school I was a prefixIn my spare time I enjoy hiding my horseDear Madman (instead of Madam)My hobbits includeRestaurant skills: Severing customersIm an accurate an d rabid typistObviously, these mistakes would have never made it into the final draft if the writer had proofread correctly, or had someone else look over their résumé and cover letter before submitting it to a potential employer. In cases like these, Im sure it was very clear to the employers that the applicants didnt want the jobs enough to ensure these mistakes were corrected. Such mistakes look unprofessional and carelessâ€"two qualities that employers avoid in employees.Proofreading your work is not only smartâ€"it can make or break your chances of getting a job, earning a promotion, or completing a degree. As with any skill, developing useful habits can help ensure that any content you submit, both professionally and personally, leaves the best impression.Developing useful proofreading habits can help you achieve professional success. Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash.Habit #1: Know your tendenciesDo you often confuse your and youre? Or maybe you have a habit of writing run-o n sentences? Keep these tendencies on a list that is easily visible whenever you sit down to write something.All writers have tendencies toward certain grammar mistakes and syntax errors. These are usually corrected the longer someone writes and works to perfect the craft of it. However, especially if you havent had a lot of experience writingâ€"or if youre learning English as a second languageâ€"knowing your tendencies is a good way to ensure adequate proofreading whenever you write.As you develop this habit, include on your list all of the grammar, spelling, or syntax errors you tend to make. Over time, youll begin to notice patterns you can identify as tendencies in your writing, and work to correct them each time you write. Being aware of the type of mistakes you often make is the first step to becoming a better writer (and proofreader).Habit #2: Print it outAfter youve written something, if you have access to a printer, go ahead and print it out. Proofreading your work after pr inting out a hard copy does several things:It allows you to make corrections directly on the paper for a visual understanding of your error tendencies (see habit #1).It gives your eyes a rest while proofreading, after staring at a screen. According to this article by the American Optometric Association, Computer Vision Syndrome, also referred to as Digital Eye Strain, is a vision-related problem that can happen after prolonged computer, tablet, e-reader and cell phone use. According to the article, to help alleviate digital eye strain, follow the 20-20-20 rule; take a 20-second break to view something 20 feet away every 20 minutes.Heres another great reason to print it out:Viewing a computer or digital screen is different than reading a printed page. Often the letters on the computer or handheld device are not as precise or sharply defined, the level of contrast of the letters to the background is reduced, and the presence of glare and reflections on the screen may make viewing diff icult.Viewing distances and angles used for this type of work are also often different from those commonly used for other reading or writing tasks. As a result, the eye focusing and eye movement requirements for digital screen viewing can place additional demands on the visual system.American Optometric AssociationHabit #3: Find a second pair of eyesSpeaking of eyes, even the most seasoned writers know to have someone else look over their work before it is published. Sometimes, you can write a phrase or word so often that it seems correct, even though it isnt. This is why its always important to make the habit of finding a second pair of eyes to look over your writing.Preferably, this other reader should be a professional editor, especially if your content is extremely important for professional or academic pursuits. As a writer and editor, I would never send in an article to a magazine or a query letter to a publication without first having a fellow editor look over it for me. Ther e have often been small details I missed after writing a piece that another editor will catch upon first reading.Another thing that happens is after you focus so intently on writing something, your brain will often fill in words that arent on the printed page, causing you to miss the word entirely. This happens because youre overthinking the sentence or paragraph. Having another person read over your writing is the best way to catch this kind of mistake.If you cant afford to hire a professional editor, at least consider having someone look over your writing for you. This could be a friend, relative, classmate, or professional acquaintance, and could help you catch a missed error you wouldnt have otherwise seen.Find another person to be a second pair of eyes and catch mistakes you might have missed. Photo by Nonsap Visuals on Unsplash.Habit #4: Read out loudReading your work aloud is a great proofreading habit to adopt, particularly because it helps you hear mistakes you might otherw ise miss when only reading it in your head. If a sentence doesnt sound right when read aloud, youll notice it immediately. Its one of the best habits you can adopt to ensure that everything you write is proofread correctly every single time.According to The Write Practice, reading the words aloud is a proofreading technique that will change your life. Not only does this technique help with grammar, such as knowing where punctuation should go by hearing the pauses that happen, it also helps you catch run-on sentences that leave you out of breath after reading. Reading aloud also helps you find holes in your logic or missing information that needs to be included, along with awkward word placement or repetition. Sometimes, its impossible for me to catch repetitive phrasing or words unless I read my writing aloud first. After doing so, the repetition becomes clear.Habit #5: Give it timeAnother important habit to develop for proofreading is to give it time. Preferably, after youve writte n something, you should sleep on it, meaning put it aside to proofread the next day. Many writers have learned over the years that the best time to write or proofread your writing is first thing in the morningâ€"after that first cup of coffee (if caffeine is your thing) and after youve had a restful nights sleep.If you dont have this much time, at least give yourself a few hours between writing the content and proofreading it. Not only will you be able to proofread betterâ€"youll give your brain the time to reset and prepare for the different processes copyediting requires.Heres the science behind why this is a good idea. The way the brain functions while writing (creating) is different than how it works in the proofreading process. Martin Lotze researched what the brain looked like while writing. Using an fMRI while his subjects were writing, he first had 28 writers copy an excerpt. He then had the same subjects write a short story for three minutes.During the actual writing activi ty, the occipital lobe (responsible for visualization) became more active, as the writers were seeing the scene take place in their minds as they wrote. During this creative process, the hippocampus and front of the brain became active, as factual information and plotline were processed. Expert writers used an additional part of their brainâ€"the caudate nucleus, which is the region of the brain that handles automatic functions.In another study, The Science Behind What Writing Does to Your Brain by Erika Rasso, the writer explored research related to how the writing process differs from the copyediting or proofreading process. She notes:Copyediting is an action involving a complex network of different cognitive process to do. The basic building blocks of this complex network are attention and memory… Retrieval from both short-term and long-term memory are required to hold the information the copyeditor is reading in their head and to reference knowledge of grammar, style and other parts of the manuscript.The Science Behind What Writing Does to Your Brain by Erika RassoAs you can see, taking time between the two processes (writing and proofreading) gives your brain the opportunity to switch gears. This is an important step to ensuring youre able to proofread while your brain is at optimal performance.Developing important habits for proofreading will help save you from embarrassing errors and any unprofessional faux pas. Learn them now and youll find that you make fewer errors the more you practice.

The Factors that Encourage People to Recycle Free Essay Example, 2500 words

Schultz and Oskamp (1995) also suggest that the relationship between environmental concern and recycling has decreased over the years. They suggest that in the past, the conditions in which recycling required a high amount of effort resulted in only people with high environmental concern recycling. However, nowadays, the increased financial incentives to recycle means people are doing so for more reasons than just altruistic concern for the environment, thus the relationship between environmental concern and recycling seems to have diminished or disappeared. City councils have also started to introduce fines for people and businesses who don t recycle their waste. Therefore, despite a rise in recycling rates, there may not always be a rise in environmental attitudes Poole s (1992) household waste management study also indicated that despite 88% of respondents claiming to recycle, it was only the top 20% of these recyclers who contributed 80% of recycled materials. Therefore the r elationship between individuals who recycle also appears to be unequal, and despite increases in recycling rates, it does not always mean more people are recycling. Situational VariablesBarr et al (2001) define situational variables as an individual s personal circumstances at a given time, represented by access to or knowledge and experience of waste management. Recycling behavior can be linked to a number of key situational variables including the amount of effort involved, convenience, storage space and access to recycling schemes. Tonglet et al (2004) collaborates with Barr et al s claim and suggests that situational factors were strongly correlated with sustainable waste management attitudes in two ways in their research: 1. Having the appropriate skills, resources, and opportunities to recycle contributed to positive recycling attitudes2. Non-recyclers stated that they thought that recycling was inconvenient, took up too much time and room, was too complicated and waste on m oney. We will write a custom essay sample on The Factors that Encourage People to Recycle or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now

Cyber Secuirty and Cyber Crime - 1643 Words

Cyber Crime and Security Cybercrime or electronic crime generally refers to criminal activity where a computer or network is the source, tool, target, or place of a crime. These categories are not exclusive and many activities can be characterized as falling in one or more category. Additionally, although the terms computer crime and cybercrime are more properly restricted to describing criminal activity in which the computer or network is a necessary part of the crime, these terms are also sometimes used to include traditional crimes, such as fraud, theft, blackmail, forgery, and embezzlement, in which computers or networks are used to facilitate the illicit activity. So basically it is a criminal activity committed on the internet. This†¦show more content†¦E.g. love bug virus, which affected at least 5 % of the computers of the globe. The losses were accounted to be $ 10 million. The worlds most famous worm was the Internet worm let loose on the Internet by Robert Morris sometime in 1988. Almost brought development of Internet to a complete halt. (Broadhurst, 2006) 8. Logic bombs- These are event dependent programs. This implies that these programs are created to do something only when a certain event (known as a trigger event) occurs. E.g. even some viruses may be termed logic bombs because they lie dormant all through the year and become active only on a particular date (like the Chernobyl virus). 9. Trojan attacks- This term has its origin in the word ‘Trojan horse’. In software field this means an unauthorized programme, which passively gains control over another’s system by representing itself as an authorised programme. The most common form of installing a Trojan is through e-mail. E.g. a Trojan was installed in the computer of a lady film director in the U.S. while chatting. The cyber criminal through the web cam installed in the computer obtained her nude photographs. He further harassed this lady. 10. Internet time thefts- Normally in these kinds of thefts the Internet surfing hours of the victim are used up by another person. This is done by gaining access to the login ID and the password. 11. Web jacking-

Affording EU Homes Free Essays

The ever rising housing demand in Europe, and indeed all over the world is forcing countries to develop measures ensuring that all people across income lines get decent accommodation. Being among basis human rights, states are obligated to develop and maintain systems that consistently help citizens with their housing needs. In this regard, individual EU countries are under, the Union supposed to ensure that the basis human right of hosing is provided, failure of which could lead to disciplinary action from the secretariat as well as ridicule from other members. We will write a custom essay sample on Affording EU Homes or any similar topic only for you Order Now However, the question whether the Brussels should have a say in member country housing policy has been rising and consistently debated at national and regional level. As a contribution to this debate, this paper shall investigate whether the European Union as a body has a part to play in national hosing policy development; it shall be argued that Brussels has no role to play at the national level. However, Brussels should provide guidelines and targets to be followed by individual member countries. The paper shall pass Italy’s decentralization and Localization of housing problems as the best framework that EU should copy.   The concluding part would reiterate on important points made in the paper. Brussels’ Role in National Housing Policy Current arrangement at the regional levels have national governments take control of their nation’s housing policies (Priemus, 2006, p. 1). This ensures that individual countries develop and maintain policies that are in line with national demand. In addition, countries are able to wither through business cycles affecting their industries without affecting other nations. Having each country take care of housing policies further mean that member countries are able to see and learn for best practices used in different nations. This diversity of policies are hard for EU officials to manage, which explains why national governments should continue taking the center stage. Despite the independence of national governments in managing their countries’ housing markets, it has been reported that the European Union has been slowly making inroads into the management of the sector, a matter that many countries are not very comfortable-with (Priemus, 2006, p. 1). The EU comes into the management circle in the name of streamlining housing industry in the entire region. One route that is consistently used by the EU is the pretext of assuring that social aspects of housing are met by all members. That is, members of the community without abilities to provide themselves with shelter are considered and equally attended. Due to the need of providing shelter for all in the region, EU authorities have been pushing national governments to adopt a single approach to the issue. This however requires minimal state intervention and increased role of the European Union in running of housing affairs in the region. The loss of national control of the housing market is not being taken lightly by European governments and the electorates. One reason being that the sector is seen as so vital such that the state and local stakeholders have to be involved with day to day running of the industry. National governments should less be involved in the management of housing industry as is in Italy, which means that even the EU should stay clear of housing. Reason: the one-size-fits-all policy of development would not be effective in meeting housing goals than the policy of decentralization (Eurofound, 2006, p. 7). References Eyk, H. (2002). EU Housing. Amsterdam. Housing Ministry. Eurofound, (2006). Social Dimensions of EU Housing. Dublin: Eurofound. Longo, G. (2006). Coupling Localization and Urbanization of Housing in Italy.   Ljubljana:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ENHR. Premus, H. (2006). EU and National Housing Systems. Ljubljana: ENHR. Toa, A. (2007). Italian Housing Policy. Roma: University of Roma. How to cite Affording EU Homes, Papers

Prejudice Essays (621 words) - Abuse, Anti-social Behaviour

Prejudice Prejudice and Discrimination: Do traditional values encourage prejudice? Human evolution took place in a most scattered manner, in time and place. Our world is replete with varied societies, each with its own guidelines, philosophies, conventions, customs, traditions, and institutions. Each group, each society, each culture proclaims its individuality, its differences, its distinctiveness, and concocts devices, legal or otherwise, to ensure they will last forever. Therein lie the seeds of intolerance. Mankind must come to realise that each individual is not a limited member of some isolated and narrowly defined group but rather a member of the people of the planet earth. The customs and traditions of our varied cultures, religions and racial groups evolved millenniums ago, in closed, isolated and distant geographic areas on the planet. Each isolated group responded in its own way to the mystical worldly wonders of their environment. Our current knowledge of the universe and its worki ngs is neither perfect nor complete but it is more than adequate to provide a willing mankind with an escape from the intolerance and barbarism that has poisoned and continues to poison our social behaviour. Traditional values are the cause of much conflict when different groups come into each other's living space. The conflicts that arise out of cultural differences are a consequence of each group's erroneous belief about their culture and the nature of culture. Each group holds its customs and traditions as inviolable, and any request made on the adherence is deemed an affront and becomes an excuse for punishment. One of the most destructive types of prejudice is based on someones race or cultural group. Take the Holocaust for example. Because of Hitlers prejudice, six million Jews were systematically and efficiently slaughtered for no other reason than that they were Jews. Each society had its own way and means of doing things. Values may be instilled in us that others may be les s hardworking or less efficient, and this brings about economic and job discrimination. A businessman may refuse to do business on equal terms with members of a disfavoured group. Or, he may refuse employment to workers of another race, just because he feels he should support his own. The Chinese have been known for their favouritism towards boys, the ones who carry on the family name. When China implemented the law that each couple could only have one child, most wanted to have a boy, and that led to the killing of many baby girls. At home, it is the girls who do the household chores, with the stereotyped thinking that a womans place is in the house. In the workforce, women are paid less than men. Employers doubt their capabilities and commitment, base on the misconception that women are not as intelligent, inferior and belong at home. Religion is the most influential on our value systems, and is therefore a very sensitive issue. There is no intrinsic harm in upholding and living i n accordance with a particular set of religious beliefs. However, these beliefs should not preach or foster malevolence towards others. Yet there will be, to a certain extent, a sense of superiority of one religion in view of another. This is because we all think that that religion we believe in is the right one. We feel that the others are following a wrong path. We then tend to separate ourselves from them. We are still living in a world where the earth is flat, figuratively speaking. We lack the courage and the willingness to realign our ancient customs, traditions and religious teaching with the world today, where there is increased globalisation. And because of our traditional values, we are unconsciously prejudiced against other groups and societies. Social Issues

Theories of Patriarchy essays

Theories of Patriarchy essays Assess the claim that gender inequalities in the domestic and occupational divisions of labour are best understood with reference to the concept of patriarchy. You should illustrate your answer with reference to a range of feminist perspectives. Western female thought through the centuries has identified the relationship between patriarchy and gender as crucial to the womens subordinate position. For two hundred years, patriarchy precluded women from having a legal or political identity and the legislation and attitudes supporting this provided the model for slavery. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries suffrage campaigners succeeded in securing some legal and political rights for women in the UK. By the middle of the 20th century, the emphasis had shifted from suffrage to social and economic equality in the public and private sphere and the womens movement that sprung up during the 1960s began to argue that women were oppressed by patriarchal structures. Equal status for women of all races, classes, sexualities and abilities - in the 21st century these feminist claims for equality are generally accepted as reasonable principles in western society; yet the contradiction between this principle of equality and the demonstrable inequalities between the sexes that still exist exposes the continuing dominance of male privilege and values throughout society (patriarchy). This essay seeks to move beyond the irrepressible evidence for gender inequality and the division of labour. Rather, it poses the question of gender inequality as it manifests itself as an effect of patriarchy drawing from a theoretical body of work which has been developed so recently that it would have been impossible to write this essay thirty years ago. Although ... patriarchy is arguably the oldest example of a forced or exploitative division of social activities and clearly existed before it was ever examined by sociologis...

Lord Neubergers advice on clearer legal writing - Emphasis

Lord Neubergers advice on clearer legal writing Lord Neubergers advice on clearer legal writing When it comes to calls for improving legal writing, few are made with more authority than this. Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, President of the Supreme Court, has said that judges themselves need to change the way they write – or risk losing the public’s confidence in the entire justice system. Lord Neuberger made the claim in a recent lecture to the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII). His main focus was on writing and reporting judgments (or should that be judgements?), but many of his comments are relevant to legal writing in general. ‘It is not realistic to expect that every Judgment could be understood by everyone:    human nature, the complexities of modern life, and the intricacies of the law do not permit that,’ he said. ‘However, if we are to maintain public confidence in the justice system, judges must make their Judgments as accessible as possible, particularly to members of the public and litigants-in-person.’ Even lawyers prefer simple writing To illustrate the importance of clear writing, he gave an example from a study by the American law professor Joe Kimble. As part of the study, The Straight Skinny on Better Judicial Opinions, Professor Kimble sent two versions of the same judgment to 700 lawyers. Version A was the original judgment, picked as an average sample, not an especially bad one (though Lord Neuberger described it as having ‘Proustian length sentences without Proust’s literary merit’). Version B had been rewritten in plainer language. Here’s the opening paragraph of version A: ‘Plaintiff Robert Wills filed a declaratory judgment against defendant State Farm Insurance Company to determine whether defendant has a duty to pay benefits under the uninsured motorist provisions found in plaintiff’s policy with defendant. Pursuant to the parties’ stipulated statement of facts, the trial court granted summary disposition in plaintiff’s favor upon finding coverage where gunshots fired from an unidentified automobile passing plaintiff’s vehicle caused plaintiff to drive off the road and suffer injuries. Defendant appeals as of right. We reverse and remand. And here’s the opening paragraph of version B: ‘Robert Wills was injured when someone drove by him and fired shots toward his car, causing him to swerve into a tree. He filed a declaratory-judgment action to determine whether State Farm had to pay him uninsured-motorist benefits. The issue is whether there was a ‘substantial physical nexus’ between the unidentified car and Wills’s car. The trial court answered yes and granted a summary disposition for Wills. We disagree and reverse. We do not find a substantial physical nexus between the two cars, because the bullets were not projected by the unidentified car itself.’ The lawyers expressed a ‘strong preference’ for version B. Asked why they preferred it, they said because it had a summary at the beginning, left out unnecessary detail, and was more concise. And if the lawyers found version A harder to read, despite their extensive legal training, the general public barely stand a chance. ‘First, the fact that legal professionals are trained to read Judgments is no excuse for poor Judgment-writing,’ said Lord Neuberger. ‘Secondly, reference to lawyers, judges and academics is myopic. They are only part of the audience. The public are the real audience.’ Two recommendations for clearer judgments Lord Neuberger made two proposals for how judges could improve the accessibility of judgments. 1. Start with a judgment summary Firstly, to include a short summary at the start. This would be particularly helpful to self-represented litigants without ready access to professionally published law reports from the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR), he said. ‘It would not be as long as a law report headnote, or as one of the press summaries prepared by the Supreme Court. But it should be sufficient to enable a non-lawyer to know the facts, the issues, and how and why they were resolved.’ 2. Use a clear structure Secondly, he called for a clearer framework for all judgments, including a table of contents at the beginning ‘to give better guidance to the structure and contents of longer Judgments’, and appropriate headings and signposts throughout the document. ‘Kimble’s study confirms that this is not just a good discipline but it is what the legal professional readers want, and, if it is what lawyers want, it is a fortiori what non-lawyers will want. A clear structure aids accessibility.’ (A fortiori means ‘all the more so’. Peppering your arguments with Latin isn’t the best example of aiding accessibility – perhaps Lord Neuberger should take a little of his own advice here.) Keep it concise Lord Neuberger also made what he described as a more controversial suggestion: ‘that judges could take a more rigorous approach to cutting the length of their Judgments’. That didn’t mean they should go as far as Judge James Murdoch of the UX Tax Court, he said, quoting: ‘It is reputed that a taxpayer testified, â€Å"As God is my judge, I do not owe this tax†. Judge Murdoch replied, â€Å"He is not, I am; you do†.’ However, there were opportunities to reduce the length of judgments by cutting unnecessary content. ‘Judges should weed out the otiose. We should, for instance, remove unnecessary displays of learning, or what the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, recalls his history teacher marking on his essay, APK, anxious parade of knowledge.’ Say what needs to be said, give the readers the information they need, and no more. You can read the speech, which also covers judgment reporting and dissemination, in full here. 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