Five Proofreading Tips That You Can Use Right Now By Yourself
I always chuckle to myself when I see the blog posts and forum posts to freelance writers recommending that they have someone else proofread their writing.
It’s not that having someone else proofread your copy is a bad idea. It’s not. It’s a very good idea. Many companies hire full-time editors to proofread their documents for that very reason.
It’s just that, as a freelance writer and as a WAHM, there’s no one else here. (Well, no one except the dog, that is. The dog can’t read, so she’s out of the question.) The kids are at school and hubby is at work. It’s just me and my computer (well, it’s me, the computer, and the illiterate dog).
Even if the family was here, it’s hard to say how much help they’d be. You see, since I’m a writer I’m also the proofreader in the family. They give their letters and papers to me so that I can check them over for mistakes.
So, if you have access to an editor, then great!! For the rest of us here are five real life proofreading tips that you can do when you’re all by yourself:
- Read your writing aloud. You’d surprised at how well this works. You will tend to pause where there should be pauses. Painfully long sentences will become painfully obvious.
- Proofread your writing on paper. In this electronic age it’s tempting to do all your proofreading online. Don’t do it! Sometimes it’s better to see a hard copy. So, grab your favorite red pen and print that document out.
- Pause and come back to your writing. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in what you are writing that you miss obvious mistakes. If your deadline allows, put the document aside and do something else for at least a half hour. When you return, you’ll have a much fresher proofreading eye.
- Proofread the document backwards. Reading out of sequence helps you look at what you actually put on the paper instead of what you think you put on the paper.
- Use that spellchecker. Always take advantage of the electronic tools that come with your writing software. Sure, they’re not always correct, but sometimes they are correct. Don’t miss fixing obvious mistakes that your spellchecker would have caught.
Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.
About the Author: I am a successful freelance writer with 20 years of copy writing experience. I am available for consulting, business writing, copy writing, editing, technical writing, and web content writing. In addition, I have written an ebook, 
You are so right about this one, Laura!
Just today I put up a post with a glaring grammatical (sp?) error in the title. I had to correct and republish.
All your tips are right on the money.
Sometimes I’m so excited that I need to just slow down, read it aloud, don’t forget my spellchecker (which I’ve done before) and even print out stuff before I publish it.
I’ve done this with essays, but I must admit that when I’m blogging, sometimes I’m such a speedy writer that errors have gotten in there.
I’m glad the net is more forgiving! But I don’t like to have typos…
Happy Weekend,
Paula
Thanks Paula!
For the record, I read your post today and didn’t notice any typos. So, it can’t have been too bad.
Good advice.
Excellent pointers.
KyleBeabo and Jackal, thanks for visiting!!
Laura,
I’m always amazed at how many mistakes I catch when I read things backward. Great tips!
Katelyn
Thanks Katelyn!
Reading aloud to myself has proven to be the most helpful tip for me. I have discovered that if it doesn’t sound right, then it isn’t the right word, sentence structure, etc. I also will pause between drafts and do something else in order to look at something with a fresh set of eyes.
Thanks for stopping by Matt! I agree with you about reading aloud. It has helped me many times.
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This is a wonderful post. My advise is not to count on MS Word spell checker or any software. Just get someone else to look at your work.
Terrific post! Getting an outside set of eyes or a Professional grammar editor to proofread your work is the surest way to get all the misspelled words and awkward phrases corrected.
[...] can truly replace the value of having a second set of eyes looking at your work, there are some proofreading tricks that you can use that will help to improve your [...]
Some more useful tips for writers like me who are new to the industry. Thanks again, Laura. I’ll keep dropping by
Must say a very nice post pertaining to proofreaders. Its very helpful for international students in UK to get proofread their documents to meet the standard of writing.
You can get good service at
A good set of tips there for anyone interested in reviewing their written language, whether for business or academia. But, I feel that the most important one is allowing time between writing the actual document or post and then proofreading it later. Many individuals choose to proofread their work after taking a coffee break or lunch, which is far too short. You will find that after 24 to 48 hours of your brain having a rest that it will be able to focus much more clearly on the text in front of it and the proofreading process will be much easier and more complete.
Hi John, I’m glad you found the post helpful.
Hi Laura, I like your introduction to the post. As an editor and proofreader, I obviously like keeping my customers, but there’s nothing more satisfying than to have a customer tell me that she’s aware of her mistakes and no longer needs my proofreading service – just the editing service, of course! Everyone has the ability to proofread their own writing, and I’m glad to see that you’re offering some easy-to-understand tips that everyone can apply on a daily basis. Thanks again.
I too am the resident proofreader. Maybe, it is because I edit my user group’s newsletter.
I try to make sure my blog posts are free from errors before posting, but sometimes things slip through, just as they do in the newsletter from time to time.
Proofreading is important, but sometimes no matter how much proofing, things slip through.
I use AfterTheDeadline http://www.afterthedeadline.com/ and find it very helpful. Also, spell check and thesaurus options in my word processor help.
sefcug. Thanks for the compliment Tristan and for the resource share. I will check it out.