7 Proofreading Tips - How to Proofread Your Own Writing
Are you good at proofreading your own writing?
As an English teacher, not to mention someone who loves language and grammar, I am often asked to proofread for people--papers, memos, letters, you name it. The variety of errors I see are wide and numerous. Some people are better than others at proofreading their own writing. Sometimes when I'm proofreading, I wonder if the person even read over what was written before passing the document on to me to catch everything.
Whether you're already good at proofreading your own work or you need improvement with this skill, I think we could all brush up with some reminders of what to look for when proofreading.
1. Use Spell Check and Grammar Check.
Using spell check, and grammar check, if your software program includes it, is a basic part of Proofreading 101. If you're using Microsoft Word, don't ignore those red underlines that tell you the word is misspelled...or the green lines that tell you there's a problem with the grammar.
Look at suggested spellings. Play around with the sentence structure until the grammar is correct. But remember that spelling and grammar checks don't catch everything. Using those helpful features is only the beginning of doing a good proofreading job.
2. Read Your Writing Aloud.
To my students, I often suggest that they read their writing aloud. For things like awkward wording or omitted words, reading a paper out loud is a great way to catch mistakes. Explaining what is wrong with an awkward sentence can be difficult to express to a writer. Reading the sentence or phrasing aloud often reveals to the student what is wrong. He or she can hear that the sentence sounds funny. Omitted words, too, are easily noticed when the writer reads the sentence and hears that something is missing.
- Common Confusing Misspelled Homophones - Your/You're, To/Too, It/It's, and More!
Test your knowledge of the most common words that sound alike but are spelled differently. Here are five of the most commonly misspelled sets of homophones, including your/you're, their/there/they're, and to/too.
3. Look Up Words When In Doubt
If you are unsure about the spelling of a word, look it up. Use a print dictionary or use an online dictionary, such as dictionary.com. In addition, be extra careful about homophones, or words that sound alike but are spelled differently. Your spell check won't notice the difference if the word is spelled correctly, and grammar check doesn't often pick these errors up either. So look these words up if you need to in order to make sure of the way they are used.
Homophones include words such as their/they're/there, to/too, your/you're, be/bee, here/hear, pear/pair, bear/bare, and many, many more. Read carefully to try to catch these and other words that are misused.
Review Basic Grammar
4. Review Your Grammar Skills
If you just aren't very good at grammar, at spelling, or punctuation, then do what you can to brush up on it. Grab a grammar handbook that covers the basics.
Review the areas you don't know well, whether it's punctuation, verb tenses, or commonly confused words. If you don't know the difference between "to" and "too," then learn it!
The comma is one of the most misused punctuation marks. If you're clueless on commas, learn when you're supposed to use them or leave them out. Or at least have a reference book where you can look things up when you need to know.
- How to Correct Comma Splices and Run-On Fused Sentences
How do you correct comma splices and run-on sentences? This article gives four different ways to fix these errors, as well as tips to help yourself recognize these major sentence level errors.
5. Go Back to Your Work Later
Setting your writing aside and going back to it later is an excellent way to catch errors. I do this all the time. I have never turned in a paper in college or submitted an article on HubPages without going back to it several times, usually over the course of several days. After looking at something over and over, I find that I can read it no more and have to put it aside. That's when I know that I'm not even really taking in what I'm reading. Coming back to my writing fresh, I often catch errors I didn't see before, in addition to finding that my creative abilities have returned, making major revisions easier, too.
More Tips on How to Proofread Your Own Writing
6. Print It Out
With papers I've written in the past, I have always printed them off the computer in order to read and review them. I don't know about you, but I find it much easier to process what I've written on paper rather than on a screen.
When the document requires concentration and attention, and needs a lot of revising and editing, printing it out is especially helpful. Try printing out your work to proofread, writing in corrections and changes, then adding in the changes on the electronic document.
Tips from Another Writer
- How to Edit Your Article or Hub Before Publishing - With Love, an English Teacher
Editing is an important step in the writing process. Want to receive positive recognition for your online articles or hubs? Learn my tips for editing your articles before submission.
7. Let Someone Else Read It
Finally, let's face it. If you are really horrible at proofreading and have done all you can to improve your writing, you may have to ask someone to read over it for you. You may have a friend you can ask who is good at proofreading. Just make sure you proofread and correct all you can first before unloading your work onto someone else. Finally, if you have a document that requires perfection, you may have to consider a professional proofreader.
If you haven't had much success with proofreading your own work in the past, try these tips to see if you can improve your skills.
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Comments
Good advice!
Reading aloud usually helps me pick out what's wrong with what I have written. Sad to say, in my haste, I sometimes leave this out leading to regret when others point out my mistake.
Dear Victoria,
Can you please help me to proofread about 2000 words for my website which I written. English is my secondary language and feel difficult to make it smooth. Please get back to me at birendras@jaishdiamonds.com. I requested to many other proofreaders, but no one has help me.
Victoria, this was a very good informative article. These are all great tips to improve the quality of your articles. This will surely help others as it is very wise knowledge. I believe going back later to read your work helps me the best. It takes more time to publish it, but I often find mistakes that I didn't find earlier. Voted up and useful. Best wishes.
I enjoyed reading your hub. It was very helpful to me. My punctuation is really bad.
Once I started doing freelance I started doing most of those things you suggested. I find reading out loud to be very helpful. Great suggestions and useful hub.
I usually read my writing out loud and go back to a piece later in the day if I'm having problems with it. I need to use spell checking software more often so I don't come across silly errors after I've published a hub. Voted up and useful!
Such an important skill--and great tips!!
One more point:
Read your writing aloud, but read it slowly and clearly, as if you were reading to a young child.
I agree with most of these, but I have a few additions.
Turn the spell and grammar check off while you are writing, and leave them off until you are ready to revise.
Brush up on grammar by reading works which are grammatically correct. Just because a work is published, doesn't mean that it is written well. In other words, be selective. As a writer, you are what you read.
Go back to your work _two weeks_ later. In the meantime, write something else. The more distance you have from your own work, the better.
Let someone else read your work, but only if you trust them. A functionally illiterate person can't give you constructive criticism, and it is constructive criticism that you need. That might not be kind to say, but it is true. Further, make sure that this trusted reader actually appreciates the type of material that you write. If you are writing erotic romance and your trusted reader only likes police procedurals, then you are both wasting your time.
Great hub Victoria! Proof-reading is a big part of any project.....Especially printing. Once you put the ink to paper you can't take it back. ;)
Useful tips Victoria. I'm guilty of not really doing the proofreading sometimes when I'm in a rush to hit the publish button and then catching some errors just after publishing.
Thanks for reminding the need to do so every time.
Voted up and useful. Sharing this.
The only thing I haven't done here is to let someone proofread my work for me. =)
I always print my work for checking. It's a lot easier than reading it in a brightly lit monitor, plus I can put marks on it.
Some great tips there, Victoria. I'll certainly be using them as I get to grips with my first Hub!
Thank you very much!
Hi Victoria
I've just this minute seen this on Twitter, and it couldn't have come at a more opportune time. I'm relatively new to Hub pages, having recently published my first Hub, and getting on with the next one. I'll definitely be using all of these tips. I've voted it it up and am sharing it on facebook. Thanks very much
Victoria. These are all very useful tips for those of us who are grammatically challenged. I do read and re-read my hubs and do use spell check both in Word and HPs. I think my problem is with punctuation. Great hub. Thanks for sharing with us.
I really don't print out my hubs and I think this is a good tip. Thanks Victoria Lynn.
These tips will be helpful to a lot of people. You know, I just recently learned about comma splicing. There is a lot to learn, especially for those of us who didn't study the craft formally. My spelling is terrible and I would be in a heep (sic) of trouble w/o spell check! I will share this!
I agree with Natashath - it can be challenging to catch your own typos! Thanks for these tips!
reading it outloud, setting it down and coming back and having someone else read it are the best ways for me to catch an error. As a magazine editor, it's amazing to me how many people don't seem to proofread before submitting a piece to me for consideration. Pieces fraught with errors are almosy instantly rejected. UP and shared.
Thank you for sharing the tips. Generally I am in hurry when I am writing online, still I manage to most of the things you have suggested here.
Voted up and shared with followers.
It is so difficult for me to find typos in my own work because I know what it's supposed to say! I frequently pester my sister until she can proofread something for me.
Great Hub! I pinned it for future reference.
Great tips! I know that I often read stuff out loud to myself and even then I don't always catch my errors. Your idea to leave your work and come back to it is great advice. I need to heed that one more. :) Voted up and shared.
Sound advice here Victoria! I use many of the tactics you highlighted including having my husband proofread some of my articles. I also look everything up when in doubt. Voted up and shared! Kelley
Great advice. Thank you.
Thanks for directing me to your hub on this topic. These are some great tips!
(If you need a laugh, you ought to check out "The Impotence of Proofreading" by Taylor Mali on youtube. A bit of adult humor, but he gives the subject quite a humorous look.)
I see we have some real good writers on this hub. Keep up the good work. There is alsway room for improvement.
Interesting post ..Thanks a lot
These are especially important tips since we have nobody doing the editing for us. Voting this Up and Useful.
Great tips!! I love that you mention that relying on spell checker or grammar checker isn't enough. I couldn't count how many times I said that to my students. Homonyms/homophones are not often caught and corrected in programs like Word, nor are simple misspellings like 'a' when you meant to type 'and'. It's super important to read the work aloud to listen for errors or areas of improvement.
I'll be linking this hub to mine about editing. Voted up, useful and awesome!
Good tips. I notice sometimes, even when you've read a few times over, you may still miss it. Getting someone to read it through helps. Thanks and rated up.
I'm not too bad at proofreading but this is a great summary for general use. I find that coming back to a written piece later is really good; proofreading straightaway means we often read what we expect to be there, rather than what's actually there. I too find it much easier to correct work which is printed - it's all laid out before me rather than scrolling down. Someone else reading over your text also works well, not only for spelling and grammar but also for improving the presentation of ideas. Voted up and useful - for everyone!
Fantastic tips, Victoria. There are various editors, who say that errors can only be mitigated, and not removed. I believe that these tips can be very effective in mitigating some of the very basic errors in our writing. Thank you for sharing.
Dear Victoria ~ I wanted to click "excellent" button, but they only have one for "awesome." Close enough! Each suggestion will help people improve their finished product if they only take the time to apply them. (HUGS) Debby
Great advice for all us budding writers. Voted up interesting and useful. SHARING socially.
thank you
I love to drink coffee with ice.
This is a great hub for those like myself that have never been very good at proofreading my own work, thanks!
You wrote this after reading my sloppy work didn't you Vicki? Lol lol. I hope not!
Proof reading is so borrrrring...I know it's why I hate doing it - but I do, and I use spell check, and still stuff gets through...pffft. But I can appreciate the value of it - and your tips! Thank you!
Excellent tips Grammar Geek!!! I do it all, yet I still manage to find one or two or three down the road :))
This can never be done to much! I check my hubs and correct the errors I find in them as good as I can but I am sure there are more left! Great tips for proofreading! Voted up, useful and bookmarked!
Tina
This is great advice, especially for writers.
I am guilty of making grammatical and spelling mistakes. Some of my hubs probably have mistakes I haven't picked up on...
I always ask my partner to go through my work and see if he can pick out the errors. But going back to it later is also good advice. If I have just written something I may be tired, or read it how I want to read it.
Voting up and useful!
This is an excellent article. Some of the people that need to read this are the authors of some of the kindle books. I have read more than one aspiring author's work whose story line was ruined by spelling, bad grammer, and missing information.
Great tips for writers when proofreading their own work. Thanks for sharing.
I think for many writers (especially those for whom English is the native language and they are experts on grammar, etc.) the problem with not catching all the typos is because they don't read with their eyes. This happens to me on occasion and hence I miss a typo or two that is right in front of my eyes. I hope you understand what I am trying to say here. :)
Thanks for the advice. Proofreading adds extra time to completing a piece of work, but it is well worth it to slow down and do an extra check.
Excellent tips! I've gone over so many of my hubs and found errors, and I'm sure some still have errors.
Up ++++
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