Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

An e-mail exchange between me, and Jay Solomon of More of me to Love. Jay is an amazing editor and might provide a page full of red marks some grammatical assistance with my fiction. Below is an example of why this is a blessing.

Corinna: And now I am absolutely terrified to send you my writing. You are pretty much the editor evah – um I mean ever!

Jay: NO! I mean, I don’t know what that meant, but don’t be terrified. I just don’t f-around when it comes to writing prose. However, I don’t judge and I don’t demand that my suggestions be instituted. I just edit and let people use what they see fit.

Corinna: Oh dear…it was supposed to be a compliment. As I re-read what I wrote I can see the immediate importance of having an editor…that line was supposed to read “you are pretty much the BEST editor ever.”

Thank goodness we cleared that up. You might have thought I meant “you are pretty much the worst editor ever” and then promptly jumped out a window. And this is why proofreading saves lives.

Jay: Oh! Thank you – that is a lovely compliment, and how special that the very point of editing was illustrated within the letter itself.

Corinna: Sigh….yes I am special. Thank goodness I don’t have to ride the short but to school…

Jay: No no no Hoooway!!!

Corinna: OMG!!!! I wrote short “but” instead of “bus.” I am going to die laughing now.

The following joke was used the book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. I am going to buy this book right now.

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

‘Why?’ asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

‘Well, I’m a panda’, he says, at the door. ‘Look it up.’

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. ‘Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.’