Proofreading Advice - Improve Your Writing Skills

Editing and proofreading are writing processes different from revising. Editing can involve extensive rewriting of sentences, but it usually focuses on sentences or even smaller elements of the text. Proofreading is the very last step writers go through to be sure that the text is presentable.

Proofreading generally involves only minor changes in spelling and punctuation. This module presents strategies for editing and for proofreading under the two links below. Just remember that both editing and proofreading require some practice before the strategies feel totally comfortable.

The “finished” paper always takes effort; sometimes it takes sweat and tears. But never fear to make changes, major changes during revision or minor changes during proofreading. The best papers are those that we give our best thoughts to and those that show we can reject our less-than-best writing.

Proofreading is the very last step in preparing a final draft. Just because it’s the last step, though, don’t assume that it will go quickly. Sometimes it take two or more additional “passes” through a paper to be sure you’ve found all the remaining typographical errors, misplaced pieces of punctuation, or inaccurate words.

Start with Problem Areas

When proofreading, look first for those problems you know you have. If you know you make errors with sentence punctuation, check all sentences for completeness first. For instance, many proofreading errors involve using commas where semicolons are required. As a separate proofreading step, look at each sentence in your final drafts. Check that any commas in the middle of sentences aren’t separating two sentences that could otherwise stand alone. If you have just a comma between what could be two sentences, change that to a semicolon.

Then read the paper again for each problem teachers have suggested you work on. You may have to look at the paper five or six times to be thorough, so try splitting up your proofreading. Check for sentence punctuation and one other problem in one sitting, and then come back after a break to look for other problems.

Read from the End to the Beginning

The final product you share should not distract readers with any errors. A good way to proofread for spelling is to read from right to left, from the bottom to the top of the page. If you read only from the beginning to the end of the paper, you may overlook typos. Also, as you discover spelling errors, keep track of those. You can keep a list of common misspellings taped to the front inside cover of your dictionary so that you don’t have to look up the same words over and over. Or you can tape short lists of words to several books you carry with you during the day. Just by glancing at the list from time to time, you can learn to spell the words correctly.

Look Just for Typos

Even after you go through this sequence of steps, don’t forget to proofread once more for typos and spelling errors. As good as today’s word processing programs are in highlighting potential problems in spelling and wording, this software can’t catch certain kinds of errors (such as commonly confused words like affect and effect). That error-checking can only be done by a careful proofreader. So take the time to read what you think will be the final printout just to be sure you’ve found all the little mistakes.

A Proofreading Checklist

Proofread a paper several times, never just after you finish typing or writing. Here’s a short list of steps to go through to be sure you’ve proofread your final draft thoroughly.

Final Advice

When you need to be sure that your final papers are perfect, as you will for an application to professional school or a job-application letter, you might still want to find someone to proofread for you. Your proofreading skills will improve as you practice the steps I’ve noted above, but when you don’t want to miss any errors, then having someone else you can count on is valuable.

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PLAN: Give yourself enough time to not only research and write the paper, but to proofread too. Keep in mind that the best proofreading is done when you can get a fresh look at it, so get some distance; come back when you are ready.

PRINT A HARD COPY: Reading and correcting are easier to do when it is on paper. The computer screen can cause your eyes to strain, especially the more you read.

DON’T RELY ON SPELL CHECK: Spell-check and grammar-check can help with some errors, but not all. Spell-check won’t catch things like “their” vs. “there” or “hear” vs. “here.”

KNOW YOUR ERROR PATTERNS: Error patterns are mistakes you make on a regular basis. Do your instructors usually mark commas usage or comment on organization? It is helpful to work with your instructors and the Writing Lab to identify your error patterns.

PROOFREAD FOR ONE TYPE OF ERROR AT A TIME: It is easy to be distracted or overwhelmed by the proofreading process. If you usually struggle with commas and capitalization, you should read first for commas, then capitalization.

CHECK ALL PROPER NAMES AND SPECIAL TERMINOLOGY: Proper names and relevant terminology are too important to risk misspelling, and spell-checkers usually cannot recognize incorrect spellings.

USE PROVEN PROOFREADING TECHNIQUES: Read your paper aloud; you�ll be able to catch mistakes that you wouldn’t visually see. Also, try reading each line individually or each sentence backwards this is good for spelling errors.

GO TO THE WRITING LAB: While the Writing Lab can’t fix your paper, they can help you practice these techniques.

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Your written work may be interesting, well structured and informed. Yet it may still make a bad impression because of poor proof reading.

Part of your assessment will usually relate to the standard of your written English. It’s important to pay attention to things like tenses, gender, plurals and the structure of your sentences, especially if you have rewritten or moved sections of your work. It’s easy to lose marks – but it’s also easy to make sure you don’t.

This brief guide offers ten brief tips to help you to proof read your work as effectively as possible.

• Print it off – it’s much more difficult to read onscreen and there’s always the temptation to start doing major rewrites.
• Leave it a day – if you can, leave some time between finishing your full draft and proof reading. It’s easier to read critically when it’s not so fresh in your mind.
• Read aloud – small errors of expression and punctuation are more likely to become obvious if you read aloud.
• Punctuate your reading -put pauses in for punctuation, timed differently for different punctuation marks – so take a breath for commas, come to a halt for full stops. This is a good way to see if your sentences are too long or too short.
• Take it slowly – if you have time to do a really thorough proofing, first read each sentence in a paragraph one at a time to make sure each makes sense. Then read the whole paragraph. Finally, when you’ve read all the paragraphs, read the whole essay through.
• Take care with cut and paste – if you decide to move things about, don’t forget to check the whole sentence again afterwards to make sure all the tenses, genders and plurals agree. Using the grammar check tool in Microsoft Word can help to prevent any errors. Or if you’re using your own PC or laptop, you could download this free software: Ginger grammar and spell checker.
• Learn punctuation rules – make sure you know how to use commas, apostrophes, colons and semi-colons. For more on this, see our guide to Punctuation.
• Check your referencing – always check your course handbook for preferred conventions – if you have to reference something that’s not covered there, be consistent. See our pages on Reading, note-taking and referencing for more.
• Get another view – ask a friend to read through your work. Offer to do the same for them. Especially good if you can’t leave time between writing and proofing – another pair of eyes will be fresher.
• Use your feedback – always read and learn from your academic feedback.Use it to make a list of the things you often get wrong. Look out for these especially. They should start to disappear as you get used to doing them right.

You should be able to improve on your proof reading skills by applying all the above tips.

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