Using “Find and Replace” in Word is a useful tool for
identifying common typos and homophones and formatting nits. All writers have their “pet nits” and it
advisable to keep a list of your own so that you can run a check for them
before the final edit. It’s much easier to spot a particular typo by searching
through the document than reading it as a proofreader (the brain has an
auto-correct facility, which is why proofreading is so much more difficult than
one imagines.)
To instigate a nit search in Word, press the F5 key on
your keyboard to get the Find and Replace window up:
Type in the search word and keep pressing the “Find
Next” button until you have searched the whole document. You can also type the
correct spelling into the “Replace” field, which is very useful if you decide
to change a character’s name, for example.
This may seem rather tedious but it's well worth the couple
of hours it takes, particularly if you are unsure of a word spelling. For
example, “baited breath” is wrong “bated breath” is right – so look up any spellings
you are unsure of in a dictionary, then add them to your search.
Below is a common nit/homophone check list – followed by
a couple of tricks for spotting missing periods and uppercase errors in he
said/she said dialogue tags (He said is wrong because the sentence has yet to
end) and also how to fix “Yes Sir.” etc. to “Yes, sir.” (notice the added
address comma as well).
advice advise
affect
effect
aid aide
alter
altar
an and
ball *bawl (*cry or shout)
bare
bear
base
bass
bated
baited
begun
began
birth
berth
born
borne (usually born)
brake
break
breath
breathe
breech
breach broach
cant
can't
chose
choose
clamor
clamber (ed) (ing)
compliment
complement (ary) (ed)
conflicting
conflicted
cord
chord
council
counsel
course
coarse
creak
creek
currant
current
decent
descent
de
rigor = de rigeur
desert dessert (it's just deserts, not just desserts)
discreet
discrete (ly)
disinterested
uninterested
dominate
dominant
draft
draught drought
draw drawer (drawer is furniture-related noun)
dual
duel
dye die
each
other *one another (*more than two)
elicit illicit
elude
allude
exited
excited
fair
fare fear (ed)
flair
flare
forbid
forbade
form
from
forward *foreword (*introduction in a book)
four
for fir fourth forth
hanger
hangar
hoard
horde
hurtled
hurled
if of
or
its
it's
jam
jamb
knight
night
know
known
lay lie
laid
leach
leech
led
lead
lessen
lesson
lets
let's
lightning
lightening
lose
loose
main
man mainly manly
meat meet mete
mined
mind
miner minor
misled
mislead
mother lode (not mother load or motherload)
nit
knit
of off
our out
pail pale (it's beyond the pale)
pair
pear pare
palate pallet
past
passed
peak
peek
pedal
peddle
pour pore poor
principle
principal
profit prophet
queue
cue
quit
quite quiet
rack
wrack (ed-ing) (nearly always rack)
rained
reigned
raise
raze
ran run
rub
retch
wretch
rode road rose rise ride
roll
role
safe-deposit
box - not safety
sang
sung
she he
shear
sheer
sigh
sign
site
sight (and cite)
slight
sleight
spilt
split
stationery
stationary
straight *strait (*narrow water channel or difficulty--usu. pl)
Styrofoam
(insulation block) polystyrene (cup)
suite
suit
team teem
the
they
their
there they're
then
than that
though
thought through tough
to too
two
vain vein vane
*vise
vice (*clamping device - U.S. usage)
wet
whet (it's whet your appetite)
where
were we're
who
whom
who's
whose
wrung
rung rang
your you're
F5 searches: To find and replace hyphens for en dashes: type into
the “Find” field: a space a hyphen and a space and type into the “Replace”
field: a space, then select “en dash” from the “Special” menu and then type in
another space. It is advisable to click through using the “Find Next” button and
replace them as you go through rather than all at once. You can also type in a
space then ^= then another space as can be seen in the picture below.
The same can be done to replace double hyphens, usually
with an em dash: type in two hyphens in the “Find” field and select em dash in
the “Replace” field (or type: ^+).
To find He said She said uppercase errors use the “Match
case” checkbox as in the picture below *but remember to uncheck this box for
other searches*.
Use “Match case” to find uppercase errors of the term “sir”,
which should almost always be in lower case, Type in: Sir – at the same time
check for missing address commas, which are common in short dialogue; e.g. “Yes,
sir.” is correct, not “Yes sir.”
Missing periods at the end of paragraphs are common and hard to spot; in the "Find" field, select "Any Letter" and "Paragraph Mark" from the "Special" menu, or type in ^$^p and search for them using the "Find Next" button.
Missing periods and commas at the end of dialogue: We have to make two searches ("Find Next") to identify these. To find them in the middle of paragraphs, type: ^$" and a space character into the "Find" field.
To find them at the end of paragraphs type: ^$"^p
The former search will also identify quotation-type instances (e.g. John said I was "fussifying" things but I was just being careful) so care should be taken. These two searches will not work if you use single speech marks.
Missing spaces after commas and periods:
To find missing spaces after periods, type into "Find": ^$.^$ (or Any Letter then a period then Any Letter if using the "Special" menu).
To find missing spaces after commas, type into "Find": ^$,^$ (or Any Letter then a comma then Any Letter if using the "Special" menu).
Compound number nits are common (e.g. twenty three should read twenty-three) and the way to check for these is to type: twenty and then a space character in the "Find" field; this will make them easy to spot (follow up with thirty thru ninety).
Backwards speech marks after dialogue intervention en or em dashes are common because Word requires that the closing speech mark is added *before* the en/em dash is inserted: e.g.:
“Sorry,
James, but–“
“Sorry, James, but—“
To find these for en dashes, type ^="^p into the "Find" field (or use the "Special" menu to select the en dash and paragraph mark) and for em dashes, type: ^="^p
Once we find and fix the first occurrence in the search (by adding the closing speech mark first, and then backspacing to add the en/em dash) we can copy it (Ctrl and C) and paste it (Ctrl and V) over any following reversed speech marks that occur as we use the "Find Next" button to identify them.
For advanced users of Find/Replace there is a trick to do it globally:
First, check there are no # characters in the document, if not, type into the "Find" field either the en or em dash characters and a speech mark and a paragraph mark: ^="^p or ^+"^p and replace with: #"^p
We then select the "Replace All" option.
The next step is to replace all the # characters we just put in with an en/em dash: put a # character into the "Find" field and an en/em dash into the "Replace" field (^= or ^+)
We then select the "Replace All" option.
I hope this article is of use to you, and if you have
any tips of your own please leave them in the Comments box (or any other common
typos you are aware of).
To clean up formatting nits, please see our Eradicate Manuscript Nits article first, which will result in a more accurate search of all of the above, and also our Layout Tips article, which has a free Word
template download that is Kindle/epub friendly.
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