Thursday, November 19, 2015

PROOFREADING: Always a profitable skill

On Wednesday I had an hour between the end of my gym class at the Kennett Y and my dinner plans, so I brought along my current proofreading project to work on, a dry, tiresome and mistake-laden psychology tome. I spread out at one of the lobby tables, plugged my earbuds into some concentration-enhancing yoga music and settled in to work. After a while, I looked up to stretch my neck and noticed a young man and his mother across the table working on a homework assignment. The title of his worksheet: "Proofreading a Sentence."
I took out my earbuds, excused myself for butting into their conversation and pointed out that I was doing exactly that -- and getting paid for it! The Mom said she had noticed my work and mentioned it to her son.
I told the boy what a useful skill I had found proofreading to be over the years.
"When you're in college," I told him, "you can proofread your friend's papers, and they'll cook dinner for you!"

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