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Basically the sentence flowed well enough for me not to notice the error.
This is the sentence:
More importantly was the renaissance discovery of the literature of classical Greece.
I now know that the error is "importantly" and that it should be replaced with "important".
Can someone please explain how I could have spotted that "importantly" needed to be replaced with "important"?
One proofreading technique is to ignore any modifiers that aren't grammatically essential:
*
Moreimportantly was therenaissancediscoveryof the literatureof classical Greece.
* Importantly was the discovery.
Another technique is to restore canonical order, placing subjects, verbs and arguments in their usual locations:
* The renaissance discovery of the literature of classical Greece was more importantly.
A combination of these techniques is quite effective:
* The discovery was importantly.
The subject of the sentence you wrote is "renaissance discovery". Notice how this is a noun. The discovery is what is being described. Therefore, the adjective form is necessary in this case.
It's easier to see if we invert the sentence, like this:
"The Renaissance discovery of the literature of classical Greece was more important"
Notice that we cannot use "importantly" here.
