I spent almost all day yesterday editing and proofreading a book. Because the project was a rush job, I utilized the talents of an independent proofreader, who does phenomenal work. We sent files back and forth using Track Changes and one of the issues that came up was a sentence very similar to this: “One of the people wants to go to the seminar”. Now, the question that arose is whether the word should be “want” or “wants”. The dreaded spellcheck kept marking wants as wrong, but in this case, you need to break down the sentence to determine whether to use the single or plural form of the word. One (the subject) of the people (prepositional phrase) wants (verb)…. The subject and verb need to agree, so wants is correct, not want.

This scenario is just another reason not to automatically hit the “change” key every time spellcheck alerts you to a problem. It also supports the fact that handing off your work to a friend (or colleague) is a great idea when you’re proofreading. This is also Step Four in my co-authored book, “Write It Right: The Ground Rules for Self-Editing Like the Pros”.