Proofread on the Go

Just in case you forgot:
A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are connected with a comma.

“Brandon finished reading the book in the evening, he returned it to the library on the following day.“
Correct versions:
“Brandon finished reading the book in the evening. He returned it to the library on the following day.“✨
“Brandon finished reading the book in the evening; he returned it to the library on the following day.“✨
“Brandon finished reading the book in the evening, and he returned it to the library on the following day.” ✨ , , ,

Use of Apostrophes:✨✨

✳️ Add ‘s to form possessive of singular nouns and a few irregular plural nouns that don’t end in “s.”
✳️ Add just an apostrophe to form possessive of plural nouns that already end in an “s.”
✳️ Add ‘s to form plural forms of lowercase letters and abbreviations.
✳️ Use an apostrophe to form contractions.

See examples below😉👇🏻👇🏻
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American English vs. British English

Spelling differences:

⭐️-or ending in American instead of -our
⭐️-ter ending in American instead of -tre
⭐️-ize ending in American instead of -ise
⭐️ American English prefers use of one letter l where British English uses two l’s

See examples below 👇🏻
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A few helpful tips on capitalization of titles of works😉

Capitalize the FIRST and the LAST words and all other major words (nouns, pronouns, adverbs, verbs, adjectives, and some conjunctions) in titles.

Lowercase the common coordinating conjunctions and, but, for, or, and nor.

Lowercase the articles the, a, and an.

See examples of book titles below 📚 👇🏻

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Grammar tip of the day:

“Everyday,” as one word, is an adjective that means “used daily,” whereas “every day,” as two words, is an adverb phrase that means “daily.”

If you can put the word “single” in between “every” and “day” and the sentence makes sense, then choose two-word version😉

“Surprisingly, she wore her everyday clothes to the restaurant.”

“Nick visits his mom every day.”

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Grammar tip of the day…
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There/They’re/Their—another set of commonly misused words 🤦‍♀️

“There” is an adverb that means the opposite of here. It is also a pronoun that starts a sentence or a clause. A tip to remember: “there” contains “here.”

“They’re” is a contraction for either “they are” or “they were.” A tip: try substituting “they’re” with “they are” or “they were.” If the sentence makes sense, then you got the right version😉🎉

“Their” is a plural possessive pronoun that shows belonging. A tip: “their” contains “heir” that indicates possession.

See examples below👇🏻👇🏻
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Common mistake…

Wrong: She likes to read alot.

Right: She likes to read a lot.

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Affect vs Effect—one of the hardest pairs of homophones to sort out. This tip will help you keep them separate:

Affect is mostly a verb and means to influence, to impact.
“His powerful speech affected the crowd’s decision.”

Effect is mostly a noun and means an outcome, result.
“Her attempt to justify her actions had no effect.”
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Punctuation tip of the day:

Serial Comma

Comma separates elements in the series of three or more. When the final element in a series is preceded by a coordinating conjunction, a serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma, is inserted before the conjunction. When all elements in a series are joined with conjunctions, no comma is needed.
👇🏻👇🏻
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Happy National No Housework Day!
I confess that for me it’s a No Work At All Day! 😉😀
I took a day off and headed down to Laguna Beach to rest and rejuvenate!🏝🏖
But I couldn’t part with one of my favorite punctuation books:) 🤷‍♀️
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Do you know when to capitalize points of the compass and when to lowercase them? 🤔🧐

CAPITALIZE when referring to the geographical regions but lowercase them when referring to the directions. ⬆️⬇️➡️⬅️
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

Grammar tip of the day:
Hyphenate compounds formed with colors when they come before a noun, but leave them open after a noun.
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👇🏻

For fun… ☺️

“Then” and “than” are homonyms; they sound the same but have completely different meanings. That’s why they are often misused.

“Then” indicates time.
I will play with my dog and then do my homework.

“Than” is used for comparison.
The weather is colder today than it was yesterday.

Proofreading vs Editing

Although proofreading and editing are two different stages of revision process, many people use them interchangeably. While both stages are essential to the quality of writing, they focus on different aspects of language.

Editing is the process of improving the overall quality of writing, particularly in relation to language use and expression. Editing starts as soon as the first draft is finished. It is a check for proper sentence structure and language clarity.

Proofreading is the fine-tuning stage of the revision process. Any writing must communicate its message in the clearest way. And in order to do that, it needs to be proofread to be free of any grammatical, punctuation, and spelling mistakes. Proofreading is a final check to ensure perfection before publication.✨

Happy National Grammar Day!

“Grammar is the greatest joy in life, don’t you find?” ~Lemony Snicket~

Welcome to Proofread on the Go! My name is Sona. I am excited to start my own proofreading business and am grateful for opportunity to use my love for grammar to help you create error-free content. If you need an extra pair of eyes to check your work, feel free to contact me ☺️