The Importance Of A Good Essay Proofreading Service
After all of the hassle and effort and tears of writing a good essay (see our How To Write A Good Essay guide), it can feel like you deserve a break. And you do. But first there’s one last thing to do: essay proofreading. Proofreading often seems like a tedious distraction that will prolong the period before you can have a celebratory drink or go to bed or just sit in your room in a vacant daze feeling vaguely triumphal, but it is anything but. Proofreading is incredibly important, and we’re going to show you why with some examples of proofreading errors that led to dire results.
In May 2012 Mitt Romney was busy campaigning in the Republican primary to receive the party’s nomination to run to be President of the United States of America. That’s right, America. Romney, as a modern candidate for a modern America, turned to modern technology to give him a boost in the polls, and unveiled the ‘With Mitt’ app (n.b. the app is no longer available). The app allowed users to take a picture of themselves with a pro-Romney slogan such as “I’m a Mom For Mitt,” “Obama Isn’t Working” or “The America We Love”. The idea seemed to be that people would share these pictures on social media, and provide Romney with a viral marketing boost that, hopefully, would translate into actual Republican votes. (Whether viral marketing is an effective way to reach Republican voters is up for debate, given that those who self-identify as ‘conservative’ tend to avoid engaging with modern technologies.)
The app, as it transpired, did go viral, although not in the way Mitt might have hoped. It turned out that one of the slogans, “A Better America”, had been misspelt, and appeared on the app as “A Better Amercia.” And, as was pointed out many times in the following days, Amercia is not a country, and it was a little embarrassing that Romney seemingly couldn’t spell the name of the country he wanted to be the president of.
In November 2012, Mitt Romney lost the election to Barack Obama.
During Barack Obama’s first term, in 2010, he planned to embark on a state visit to Australia, a proud and prosperous country that is good at sport and droughts. The Australian government, delighted at the visit from the then much-loved president, and eager to cash in on his cool in any way possible, commissioned a series of Barack Obama commemorative mugs. As a means of welcoming Obama, however, the mugs were not as effective as might have been hoped. Two were sold, one to a journalist; the journalist was quick to point out that Barack Obama’s name had been misspelt, and now featured an extra Australian ‘r’. President Barrack Obama mugs were less favoured by the Australian government, and instead of being sold the remaining 198 were smashed and buried under wet concrete in a loaded dock. One Australian senator, John Faulkner, compared the burial to a Mafia execution. Certainly, the Australian government was not keen for anyone to remember their mug transgression any time soon.
President Obama’s 2010 visit to Australia was later cancelled.
2010 was not a good year for Australian proofreaders. That year Penguin Australia brought out a new cookbook called The Pasta Bible. Among its many delectable recipes was one for tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto, which sounds tasty. On closer inspection, however, the recipe was rather less savoury: it called for “salt and freshly ground black people.” Which certainly wouldn’t taste very nice. In defending the inclusion of this unusual ingredient, Penguin Australia’s head of publishing, Robert Sessions, speculated that this was a spell checking error. Apparently the recipe called for “salt and freshly ground black pepper” instead.
All 7,000 copies of The Pasta Bible still in Penguin warehouses were pulped, at an estimated cost of $20,000.
As these examples illustrate, finding a good essay proofreading service is important, and failing to do it can lead to bad things happening, like losing election campaigns, or pulping nice books. Few things will make your academic work look more stupid than egregious proofing errors, and the whole point of your academic work is to make yourself look intelligent to your examiners.
Luckily, there is a way to get your essay proofreading done without having to compromise on getting the break you deserve. Our professional essay proofreading service will find and replace any mistakes, helping you to avoid the pitfalls of Mitt Romney, the Australian government and Penguin Australia.
All our essay proofreaders have achieved their qualifications from the UK’s elite universities, with a minimum of a Master’s degree and the majority also holding a PhD. All are native English speakers and we have subject specialists in almost every discipline — this range of knowledge, combined with our exacting standards, makes us the perfect choice for your essay proofreading needs.
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