You might think the quality of a proofreader is determined by how well they catch typos. I propose that the quality of a proofreader is determined by how much agony he or she feels when they miss one.
True story: When I was just a wee proofreader first starting out, a client pulled me aside and pointed out that there were, in fact, two ways to spell complimentary/complementary. I cried for days (okay, that last part is not exactly true). But I DID agonize for days over it. DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!
Think of it this way:
There is COMPLIMENTARY with an I and COMPLEMENTARY with an E.
COMPLIMENTS are free. Anything that is free is COMPLIMENTARY.
Things that go well together are COMPLEMENTARY. The two Es in COMPLEMENTARY go well together.
Katherine Guntner
Senior Technical Writer and Account Manager at the White Deer Group. Kathy's deft touch can be seen on our most complex projects.
