Additional Information about Proofreading:

PROOFREADING TIPS AND TRICKS Basic proofreading skills are important for anyone who writes. For everyday texts, such as business reports, blogs, or college papers, there are some techniques you can use to proofread efficiently and effectively before sharing your work.

Edit your writing first Before you get to the final stage of proofreading, make sure youve thoroughly revised and edited your work. Theres no point spending time fixing minor errors if you might later remove whole sections or rewrite paragraphs. Only proofread once youve got a completed final draft that youre happy with.

Take a break from the text When youve been reading and rereading the same words for hours or days, it becomes much harder to notice mistakes. Before proofreading, set your work aside for a while so that you can look at it with fresh eyes. Ideally you should wait at least a day or two before final proofreading, but if youre on a tight deadline, even a half hour break can help.

Proofread a printout Seeing your words on a printed page is another useful strategy for noticing things that might have escaped your attention on the screen. If the final version will be printed, this is also a good chance to check your formatting is correct and consistent on the page.

Use digital shortcuts While reading from print can help you spot errors, word processing software can help you fix them efficiently. Most obviously, run a spell check but dont rely on the computer to catch every mistake. If you notice that youve repeatedly misspelled a particular word, inconsistently capitalized a term, or switched between UK and US English, you can use the Find and Replace function to fix the same mistake throughout the document. Be careful, though, and dont use replace all. Click through and check every replacement to avoid accidentally adding more errors! Learn from your mistakes Pay attention to the errors that keep recurring in the text. This can help you avoid them in future. WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR WHEN PROOFREADING

Spelling and word choice confusions Confusions between homophones (e.g. there/theyre/their) Misuse of definite and indefinite articles (the/a/an) Misuse of prepositions

Misplaced punctuation Missing or misused commas Confusion between hyphens, em dashes and en dashes Incorrect use of apostrophes

Stylistic inconsistency Switching between UK and US conventions Inconsistent capitalization of terms or titles Inconsistent treatment of numbers

Formatting issues Incorrect formatting of quotations and citations Inconsistent paragraph indentation and spacing Missing or misplaced page numbers, headers and footers

Knowing what to look out for is the most challenging part of proofreading. Youll probably notice obvious typos, but subtle mistakes in grammar and punctuation can be harder to recognize. The table below shows some of the most common errors to look out for.