Active and passive forms of sentence structure can completely alter a readers understanding of the same message. Active sentences tend to be more forthcoming with their meaning, whereas passive sentences often aren’t as clear.
A study published on the Science Dailywebsite discusses research carried out at Northumbria University. The research looked at how native speakers interpreted active and passive sentences. Dr Dabrowska’s comments on the results of the study included:
That's right, I've just declared the death of spell check! My last post about the Cupertino Effect should be enough to convince you that relying heavily on spell check is like telling the world you have lost all self respect. If you have read that post and still don't know what I'm talking about then maybe it's time to call it a day.
Whatis.com has published a page dedicated to the Cupertino Effect. This page includes errors which actually made it to press including this beauty:
"Quaker Maid Meats Inc. on Tuesday said it would voluntarily recall 94,400 pounds of frozen ground beef panties that may be contaminated with E. coli. (Reuters)."
Academic referencing can be nothing short of a nightmare because there are so many different styles of referencing out there. Last year I went back to university for the first time in seven years and found that the simple mention of Harvard referencing conjured up an old, yet familiar nauseous feeling in my stomach (which I hadn’t experienced in precisely seven years).
This is the first post to Mr. Proofread's blog so I feel it's appropriate to tell you a bit about the website's evolutionary journey so far. Mr. Proofread was the product of a conversation I had about how web 2.0 technologies are changing the way we interact with each other. This led naturally on to how we could develop a place online which allowed its visitors to select a proofreading service that could respond quickly.
Academic referencing can be nothing short of a nightmare because there are so many different styles of referencing out there. Last year I went back to university for the first time in seven years and found that the simple mention of Harvard referencing conjured up an old, yet familiar nauseous feeling in my stomach (which I hadn’t experienced in precisely seven years).
