by Laly Seguin

Created on: September 04, 2008

The correct way to proofread your work

Most people realize the importance of proofreading a document prior to printing or publishing it for others to read. However, few are aware that proofreading is an actual skill that requires the use of certain techniques. The vast amount of articles being published every day on the Internet clearly indicates that not everyone takes the time to properly proofread their work. Having someone else read over your text will also be highly ineffective if you are depending on an untrained eye to proofread your work and that person does not apply proofreading techniques.

There is a common assumption that proofreading simply consists of reading over the content of a document, scanning the text to find obvious errors and misspellings. However, most mistakes are made unconsciously, and as a result of not utilizing specific proofreading techniques, many mistakes are published for readers to see and judge. Once an error is detected, the reader will often change the focus to finding more mistakes, or lose interest in the article and move on.

Proofreading takes time. A trained proofreader will read a text 3-4 times before putting their seal of approval on it. To effectively proofread your own work, you need to look for specific errors individually. The following five techniques are commonly used by experienced proofreaders and are recommended for those who proofread their own work:

1. Print out your text. If you're working on a larger document, divide it into sections and print one section to be proofread at a time, leaving the rest for later. Printing the document will allow you to get a fresh view of the text; it will also help you stay focused and able to concentrate on the details of the text.

2. Read every word individually to detect misspellings. Sometimes we try to type too fast to keep up with our thoughts, but our fingers can't keep up at the same pace, resulting in missed letters or typos. (i.e. you instead of your - ad instead of and) These mistakes are usually not detected by automated spellcheckers.

3. Read the text again, one sentence at a time, keeping the focus on grammatical and punctuation errors. Misused or overused commas are common mistakes. Pay special attention to homonyms. Use a dictionnary to check the spelling of words you don't use regularly.

4. Read each paragraph again to see if your ideas and sentences are in order and follow a logical sequence. If a word is repeated too often or in consecutive sentences, you may want to consider looking up synonyms.

5. Read the entire document one final time. Once you are completely satisfied with every word in the text, it is ready to be published.

If your material is to be published on the Internet for the world to see, taking the time to proofread your work may determine whether people will remember your name because of the brilliant content of the article; or if readers will turn away after a few sentences because of minor errors that make you seem unprofessional and unworthy of their time.

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