A good friend of mine, author and editor Deborah Bowman (Bowman author) has written a wonderfully entertaining, yet very informative post on the importance of editing and proofreading.
Deb is a vivacious, giving person who is always happy to share good tips and her time to help others:
“It would be wonderful to have a special button on your keyboard that would read your writing and correct every error, typo, wrong word, omitted word, added word, or verb tense. It would be really amazing if the “edit key” would automatically rewrite awkward sentences, paragraphs, or chapters. There are software packages that attempt to go beyond the rigidity of spell/grammar-check, but do they do a better job?
No, not really, or only marginally. The computer or software package would have to comprehend the content, distinguish whether the entire piece has a theme, rewrite sentences and paragraphs to support that theme, and draw a convincing conclusion.
How can the basic rules of grammar or spelling downloaded into a software package cover all the exceptions to the rules in language and enhance the quality of the writing? It is not possible. . . “ Continue Reading
DGKaye©2016
DGKayewriter.com 
LOL.. I thought I had that Magic button why I am always pressing my back button to delete my spelling mistakes 🙂 And you must find lots of errors within my Grammar LOL.. not a strong point of mine… 🙂 And many thanks for your visit today.. Lovely to see you Debbie xxx Hugs xxx
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Lol Sue, thanks for the chuckles. I think the delete button gets a lot of use from many of us. Also, like I pointed out to another blogging friend, sometimes we get caught up with our comments and short on time and forget to reread. Our minds race faster than our fingers, so there are bound to be a few typos. What’s a few typos between friends? LOL xoxo ❤
Glad to see you back in the circuit Sue. 🙂
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Good thing you are a friend 🙂 LOL… Have a Happy Weekend Debbie.. Love and Hugs xxx ❤
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Lol Sue. No doubt about that! xoxo ❤
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Yup, I relied on humans. Quite a few of them by the time the book was out. Seemed I was forever adding or subtracting words and ideas. When I thought I was finished, I was advised to rewrite the beginning to make myself a more compelling character rather than a witness. I moaned. I groaned, but I knew it was great advice. I learned so much from a variety of editorial perspectives, and when the book got to the publisher, the editor there had very little work to do.
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Let’s face it Elaine, a magic button could never suffice for the work of a human. Only we can express our words, not left up to automation. Revisions can be grueling, but always worthwhile in the end. Your book is beautiful! ❤
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God, I wish there was a computer that could do it for me! I am so bad with grammar! I have never been able to get it! :p
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Three great helpful books: Elements of Style, Sin and Syntax, and Eats, Shoots, leaves. 🙂
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Yeah. Darn. I keep looking for that perfect program, but computers still can’t do what the human brain seems to manage. In fact, our brains still struggle with editing, a testament to how hard it is. Excellent post.
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And although it’s a cute article, would we really want to trust a software program to edit our words? 🙂
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No, not at all, but I would like something that catches lots and lots of technical errors 🙂
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Okay, then, I’d be up for that too. 🙂
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