The Devil is in the Detail
The deadly sin of failing to proof-read Barbara Relph * Lawyers are neutral proof-readers, spending so much time pawing over legal documents. Their’s nothing quite like a second eye to lesson the chances a mistake will slip through. See what I did there? I’m sure you did. MS Word Editor tried to fix only two of those six errors.
Why does proofreading matter? An error in a contract or other technical document can be catastrophic, and not just to your reputation. It could simply be the position of a comma or apostrophe, an incorrect word, or even the wrong number of zeros – all can have disastrous effects and be difficult, convoluted and expensive to fix.
Mistakes in your document give the impression that you do not pay attention to detail. Worse, your legal work may be viewed as being sloppy. If there’s a typo or grammatical error, there may be more serious errors, such as incorrect citations. Whether you are new to the game or in need of a refresher, here are some proofreading tips and tricks:
I found this when researching proofreading: “In other words, Legal proofreading, it is a term, used, when a legal professional works with any law firm’s proofreading documents and compares them against the documents.” Now that needed a proof-read before publication! Like the Ishihara eye test for colour blindness, if you don’t see the errors, you need a proof-reader. Suffice to say, a skilled legal proof-reader understands nuanced legal writing. That might be you, or your secretary, or your law clerk, or maybe you use an outside professional for this task. Whoever you use to check through your work, you may still learn something here. It’s hard to deny the quality of the MS Word Editor tool. So much better than the old spelling and grammar check, it picks up tense or plural errors, “voice” changes, style conventions and even makes suggestions for alternative words. However good it is, it is not specialised for legal writing. Legal terminology, capitalisation or punctuation, and legal idioms are all just too hard for Word; and you will find Word “fixes” correctly spelled words when they are used in an unusual way, as is often the case in legal writing. A good proof-reader will read for the “sense” of the work, help cut down verbiage, and check footnotes and cross references.
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• Everyone is different, and many will prefer to proofread a hard copy rather than on screen. • Read through the document several times, checking for different errors each time – for example, spelling, grammar, flow and readability, and formatting. • If there are calculations in the work, check them. If the result isn’t what you expect, check the numbers again. • As you read, check proper names, references, and double check facts. • Read aloud at least once. This is always a good idea, and really helps if your work is likely to be read out loud by someone else at any point. • It takes a great deal of discipline and focus to proofread properly, so avoid any distractions or background noise. • For long documents, proofread in sections. • If you have time before the final proofread, walk away for an hour or so (ideally overnight) and come back refreshed.
It is very difficult to proofread your own work. You only see what you believe is there. Proofreading is a discipline worth perfecting. And if you simply cannot get it right? Get help and hire a professional. The cost is minimal compared to a ruined document. * Barbara is a professional writer, editor, and proof-reader – www.barbararelph.com.
SEPTEMBER 2021
