Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
I find proof reading other people's work much easier than doing my own. I think that the reason why proof reading your own work can be so hard is that your mind already "knows" what's there and reads it like that even when it isn't. When reading others work, especially for the first time, you have to read what is actually on the page. (It still isn't 100% reliable, the mind still tends to automatically correct some things.)
Also, I find I am much better at proof reading a boring book than a good one. Certainly I get much more picky about them in normal reading.
Also, errors from OCR tend to be different to errors from human input. Often machine errors stand out to the human eye much more than human errors do (and probably vice-versa, but I've never asked  ). |
I agree. We have a personal blind spot with something we have written ourselves. That's one reason why the advice to lay a project aside for a few weeks at least is given. We are more likely to have a balanced perspective on a piece after some distance has been achieved.