Justin, thanks for the note and the good question. I do think it’s part of my job to provide the best product, which includes spotting typos. My clients know that my work with them is a collaboration.

I wrote my post thinking of occasions in which you are told to hit a word or use different emotion. Many times, every word in the copy has been labored over by writers and end clients. Therefore, you really have to know your grammar rules if you are going to suggest changes to the sentence structure.

I’d have to see the full sentence to know which of the phrases you cited are correct. However, I can offer 2 instances where they are BOTH correct:

A) Tense muscles cause

Muscles is the subject, and cause is the verb. Tense is an adjective to describe the subject.

B) Tension in the muscles causes

Tension is the subject, causes is the verb, and muscles is the object of the preposition in.

A quick Google search led me to a site that offers a concise explanation of subject-verb agreement rules. Now you know why your 8th grade English teacher made you diagram sentences to determine the parts of speech! 🙂

If you made the suggestion to change the second phrase and were told to read it as written, chances are good that it was correct as written.

Even if the phrase was incorrect, the writer may have a very good reason for leaving it that way, like garnering attention from the listener.

I hope this info is helpful. Thanks again for stopping by my blog and posing this interesting question.

Excellent post. Thanks for once again drawing from your life experiences to make such a valuable point.

Be well,
Bob

For example, I was voicing a scratch track for a commercial at work not long ago, and there were a couple different takes on the copy. One version had the phrase “muscles cause,” but the other had a typo, and read “muscles causes.” I caught this error before I read it, and read the second the same as the first, but after a few takes, I was asked to read it as written. At the time, I didn’t question the request, and did as I was instructed, but I keep wondering if I should have pointed out the error so that the read would have been correct.

Is it not the voice actor’s job to provide the best product, including spotting and correcting obvious errors like I encountered, or is unquestioning obedience to instructions more important?