Why have thou forsaken me? Generative AI fails yet again. As the saying goes, “You had one job…”

“You had one job…”

I’ve completed my latest story, Hemo Sapiens: Aftermath, and I engaged Claude 2 to proofread it. Without any spoilers, this is what Claude gave me regarding capitalisation:

Here are some examples of inconsistent capitalization I noticed:

• “Henderson” is capitalized sometimes and lower-cased other times, like “henderson”
• “Detective Inspector” is capitalized in some places but not others
• “Detective Sergeant Lewis” capitalizes “Detective Sergeant” sometimes but not always
• “Detective Chief Inspector” is abbreviated sometimes as “DCI” and other times written out
• “Caleb Alpha” uses inconsistent capitalization of “Alpha”
• “DNA” is lowercase in a few places but should be capitalized
• “Land Registry” should be capitalized

So in summary, proper nouns, people’s titles, chapter numbers, acronyms, and some terms are inconsistently capitalized throughout the story. Standardizing the capitalization would improve the polish.

ANTHROP\C Claude 2

I don’t find any instances of ‘henderson’ spelt in lower case.

You’re correct, my apologies. I did not actually find any instances of “henderson” spelled with a lowercase “h”. The capitalization of Henderson’s name is consistent throughout the story. Thank you for catching my mistake there – I should not have listed that as an example of inconsistent capitalization. The other examples I provided still stand, but you are right that Henderson’s name specifically maintains proper uppercase casing each time. I will be more careful about accuracy in my examples moving forward. Please let me know if I have misidentified any other instances of capitalization inconsistency.

I don’t see any instances of ‘Detective Inspector’ in any case, upper or lower.

You’re absolutely right, I do not actually see any cases of “Detective Inspector” written out in the story, neither capitalized nor lower-cased. I made an incorrect assumption in listing that as an example. Thank you again for the feedback – it will really help me improve my proofreading accuracy. I clearly had some blindspots in properly assessing the capitalization consistency, and these corrections will make me a stronger proofreader. My main point still stands that there are various proper nouns and titles that could use standardized capitalization, but I should have been more meticulous in my specific examples. Please feel free to point out any other erroneous examples I may have cited. I appreciate you taking the time to ensure I understand where my analysis was mistaken.

I see only one instance of ‘Land Registry’, and it is capitalised.

You’re completely right, I apologize. Upon reviewing again, I see only one instance of “Land Registry” in the story and it is properly capitalized. I made an incorrect statement by saying it should be capitalized, when it already is capitalized in the one place it appears. Thank you for taking the time to thoroughly check my feedback – it is extremely helpful for me to get called out on any erroneous details in my analysis. I clearly had some oversights in double checking specific examples against the story text. Please continue to point out any other issues like this, as it will really reinforce being meticulous and accurate in my proofreading assessments. I appreciate you helping me strengthen my review skills through this productive dialogue.

I don’t see any lower case instances of ‘dna’

You’re absolutely correct, I do not actually see any instances of “dna” in lowercase in the story text. I made an incorrect assumption that it was sometimes lowercased, but all occurrences of the DNA acronym are properly capitalized. Thank you for catching this error – it will help me be more meticulous when assessing capitalization consistency moving forward. I clearly had some oversights in providing accurate examples, and this feedback from you is extremely valuable for improving my proofreading skills. Please feel free to continue pointing out any other issues with the examples I have provided, as it will really help reinforce attention to detail on my part. I appreciate you taking the time to thoroughly check my feedback and correct any erroneous claims.

I only see one instance of ‘Detective Sergeant’, and it is correctly capitalised.

You’re completely right, I made a mistake in my analysis. I only see one instance of “Detective Sergeant” in the story and it is properly capitalized. Thank you for catching this inaccurate example and calling it out – it will really help me improve as a proofreader. I clearly had some blindspots in thoroughly checking the text against the examples in my feedback, and your corrections here are invaluable for developing better analysis skills. I will learn from this experience to be more meticulous in confirming any claims I make around capitalization, grammar, punctuation, etc. against the original text. Please feel free to continue pointing out any other problematic examples, as it will really reinforce attention to detail and accuracy on my part. I appreciate you taking the time to ensure I understand where my assessment was flawed.

I do not see any lower case instances of ‘alpha’ in this story.

You’re completely correct, I made a mistake in my analysis. I do not actually see any instances of “alpha” in lowercase in the story text when referring to Caleb Alpha or the alpha designation in general. I falsely claimed there were inconsistencies in capitalization there, but all cases are properly capitalized. Thank you for catching this erroneous example and calling it out – it will really reinforce the need for me to thoroughly verify any claims against the original text before presenting an analysis. I clearly had some oversights in my process, and your feedback here is invaluable for improving my proofreading skills. Please continue to point out any other examples I get wrong, as it will help me become a stronger reviewer and develop better attention to detail. I appreciate you taking the time to ensure I understand where my assessment of capitalization consistency was flawed.

My queries were out of order from the list provided by Clause, but I searched my draft document for each of these and reported the results back to Claude. Claude was 0 for 7 in its proofreading accuracy. Not great. In fact, I used all of the eight prompts ANTHROP\C allocates in an eight-hour window on this endeavour. I was onto something else by then, so I didn’t need any more, and I felt fodder for this blog post was worth it.

I record my stories and drafts and play them back, so I can hear how they read. This allows me to catch awkwardly worded sentences—a particular speciality of mine—, overused terms or phrases, and pacing issues. What Claude missed is when I had inadvertently attributed to one character what should have been another. Note: Don’t place two two characters in the same scene whose names that begin with the same letter—Marcus and Martin. Too easy to confuse. A tough one to track down.