Proofreading 411: What you need to know (and do!)
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
Life in the pandemic has meant more content creation; more blogs, more social media posts, more words about all the things.
It also means more errors and a need for proofreading.
What is proofreading?
The word "proofreading" harkens back to the traditional publishing industry. You know, books?
Before digital publishing came along, publishers would print an early copy of a text, called the "proof." A proofreader would perform a final review to catch any grammatical, spelling, and formatting errors or inconsistencies.
Yes, even though a text or manuscript had gone through top editing, line editing, and copy editing, some errors can still get missed in the early review stages.
Proofreading is the final opportunity to correct any errors that slipped past before publication.
Proofreading tips
Proofreading is a crucial step in the writing process. Ever to the rescue, here are my tips to improve your proofreading skills. Try some, try all, but try at least one of them before hitting "send" or "publish":
Take a breather; step away from the work. After writing and rereading the same text, it's easy for your brain to fill in missing words in a sentence or for your eyes to glaze over grammatical details.
Read the text out loud. I am always surprised by what I discover when I do this in the proofing process. You'll hear the confusing segues or fractured structure in your sentences.
Print out the document. Yes, I know. I'm suggesting you kill a tree, but I'll also say you can reserve this step for essays or longer blog posts. Switching from a computer screen to a physical page often helps you find errors that fell through the cracks.
Read the text backward: I learned this trick when I reviewed shareholder literature years ago (yes, my life is beyond exciting, and I know you're jealous). Given that a typo could mean re-submitting documents to regulators (which no one wants to do!), reading text backward became an ingrained habit.
Feel like this is too much work? Then call on the pro (hi, it's me!). My Second Set of Eyes service is designed for proofreading! When you need someone to proof a webpage, a product offering, or a client proposal, I'm your gal! Email me at judi@judi411.com!