IMPROVE YOUR PROOFREADING IN SIX STEPS

Posted on 21 July 2017 by Laura Burge

Would you say your proofreading skills are up to to scratch? Or could they do with a bit work?

Read the sentence above again. Did you originally spot the double “to”? How about the missing “of”?

Not to worry if you didn’t – you won’t be alone. Our brains are programmed to skim over missing or additional words, particularly if if they are common. Look, we did it again.

All jesting aside, proofreading your work is important. You wouldn’t employ someone with a mistake on their CV, nor would you be particularly impressed to receive an essay littered with errors.

The steps below will help you to ensure your work is as error-free as possible.

Sounds obvious, right? You’d think so – but it’s amazing how many people don’t use this simple tool.

Many programs, including Microsoft Word and Outlook, have built-in spellcheckers, and there are also some great online platforms that will do the job.

Of course, a spellchecker won’t pick up all your errors – using the word “one” instead of “won”, for example – but it is still an important step to clean, error-free copy. A few words of warning: make sure the spellchecker is set to English (UK), and do pay attention to what it says!

READ IT OUT LOUD

It may seem a bit silly, but reading your work out loud really will help you to spot those pesky mistakes. Slow and steady wins the race here; you are more likely to miss things if you speak too quickly.

You may also want to consider printing the document out – it’s usually easier to spot mistakes on paper.

COME BACK TO IT

Wait at least a couple of hours – preferably longer – before reading through your work; any earlier and it will be too familiar. You’ve already seen how easy it is to skim over missing words.

You can, of course, read through your work earlier – just make sure you take another look later on, too.

CONCENTRATE

Switch off your music, hide your phone, and find somewhere quiet. The key to successful proofreading is no distractions – how are you meant to concentrate if Spotify is blaring out your Daily Mix?

YOUR NEARLY THEIR…

Most of us know the difference between “your” and “you’re” and “their”, “there” and “they’re”. But when typing at speed, it can be easy to mix these up. A spellchecker won’t necessarily pick up these errors, but you need to.

Other common mistakes include: it’s/its; off/of; we’re/were; and to/too/two. If you know your grammar isn’t your strong point, try to brush up from time to time. Books such as My Grammar and I and Eats, Shoots and Leaves are good to start off with and our Writing@Sea course contains a list of common spelling and grammar mistakes.

ASK FOR A SECOND OPINION

Even the best writers make mistakes. Ask someone else to read through your work – chances are they will spot something you haven’t. Just make sure you return the favour!

What techniques do you use to proofread? Let us know what we’ve missed in the comments below. If you would like to improve your writing you can sit Writing@Sea, our award winning writing course which costs just £1.99/month or why not sit one of our tutor supported GCSE/A Level courses?