Proofreading Tips

While it is advisable for everyone to have someone else proofread his or her work, sometimes that is not possible or practical. When you find yourself in this situation, consider the following tips:

• One strategy that works well is to go through the document paragraph by paragraph or even sentence by sentence  in reverse order. That is, start by proofreading the last paragraph or section, then the next to the last section, and so on, ending with the piece’s first paragraph. This allows you to catch errors you might otherwise gloss over when reading through the piece in the order you wrote it. The flow of a familiar piece can blind us to blaring mistakes.
• Use different colored ink or colored pencils to circle different elements in the piece. For example, use one color to go through and circle all end punctuation marks to make sure they are all correct. Use a different color for all internal punctuation. You could underline each clause in a certain color to make sure you have avoided fragments. You might need to print out or photocopy the piece before starting this technique.
• This brings up a good point: even if you are writing and editing on the computer, it is helpful to do one or two rounds of proofreading with a printed hard copy. Most people notice different errors in print than on screen.
• Any word you are not 100% sure of the spelling or usage should be looked up in a dictionary, either printed or online dictionary like with dictionary.com.
• Read the piece allowed to help check for the flow. If possible, record yourself reading it and then follow along to the playback. Alternately, you could have someone else read the piece aloud while you follow along and make corrections on the page.
• If you must proofread your own piece, do not expect to be able to catch all the errors immediately after writing the draft. Put the piece aside for as long as you can before trying to revise, edit or proofread.
• Changing the size, shape, color, type of paper, format, spacing, or other format changes to help you see the writing in a new perspective.
• Whatever you do, do not rely 100% on spelling and grammar checkers that are part of your word processing package.
• Only proofread for one kind of error or feature at one time. This means that you could be proofreading the same piece of writing multiple times.