Proofreading

Proofreading is a prayerletters.com distinctive, and while it's no longer included with every mailing, it's still our most popular option.

Having an extra set of eyes read over your letter before it gets printed can be valuable even for those of us who don't generally have bad grammar or bad spelling habits. Sometimes we just miss things, especially when we've been staring at a page for several hours.

While we don't claim that we'll notice and correct every mistake, we tend to be good editors, and make at least minor corrections in nearly every letter that we read.

Exception for PDFs

If you send us a PDF version of your letter, we aren't able to make corrections for you. In these cases, we will generally ignore minor mistakes, and only ask for a new version of the letter if there's something that's blatantly wrong or missing.

If you want us to let you know about every mistake that we find even if it's a PDF, just let us know in the comments when you send your letter.

Does it really matter?

Every mistake will be a little distraction to your reader – if they notice it, they'll jump from thinking about what you're saying to thinking about the typo that they just saw.

Garden path sentences and ambiguities can also distract your readers, as they try and figure out what you meant to write. Then there are the times when you get distracted and forget to finish a sentence or paragraph.

Occasionally, we'll come across particularly glaring mistakes, such as the following true examples:

  • Your prayers are detrimental to my ministry. ("Instrumental." This has actually happened more than once.)

  • I have been apart of the ministry for over a year now. ("A part" and "apart" are opposites. This happens frequently.)

  • I was showing a religious movie to some Muslim girls, and they got sacred. ("Scared." Lots of people transpose letters or leave out letters, and this can have unexpected consequences.)

  • Another new staff member is a recent graduate of _____ State University. [New Staff Member] is developing his ministry partner team in _____ and is cursing right along. (Word auto-corrects "crusing" to "cursing" rather than "cruising".)

We also correct Bible-quoting errors every now and then, which generally fall into one of these categories:

  • References to non-existent Bible passages, such as Psalm 152.

  • References to the wrong Bible passage (e.g. right chapter and verse, wrong book).

  • Mismatched quotations and references.

  • Bible passages that, read in context, mean something very different than what was intended (e.g. attributing something to God that was said by someone else.)

So, while most of the time your letters may be fine, it helps to have another person give it a quick read, and it can occasionally let you avoid an embarrassing mistake.