Proofreading Hints

Writing assignments can be divided into four stages:

Preparation: define the topic, prepare how to address your audience, and gather research
Drafting/writing: develop content, message, and style
Revising: review and revise
Proofreading: focus on writing mechanics (spelling, grammar, format, etc.)

Intentionally separate "proofreading" from the "writing" and "revising" processes. Writing and revising focus on content, message, and style; proofreading focuses on "mechanics."

Work with another:

It is twice as hard to detect mistakes in your own work as in someone else's!
Get a second opinion! A fresh set of eyes may not only find errors, but also offer suggestions for improvement.
Professional editors proofread as many as ten times. Publishing houses hire teams of readers to work in pairs, reading out loud. And still errors occur.

Cultivate a sense of doubt

Take nothing for granted. If you know you repeat certain errors, double check for them. Most errors in written work are made unconsciously.

These are sources of unconscious, repetitive error:

Misspellings:
a word such as "accommodate" can be checked through a spellchecker in word processing
Keyboarding: "form" for "from"
a keyboarding error that is common and unthinkingly repeated
Usage error "which" for "that"
word processors may locate the problem, but it is left to you to decide and choose
Inattention:
the mind works far faster than the pen or keyboarding

Read out loud, word for word:

Take advantage of two senses: hearing and seeing
It is often possible to hear a mistake, such as an omitted or repeated word that you have not seen
Slow down
Read what is actually on the page, not what you think is there. This is difficult, particularly if you wrote what you are reading.

Why slow down?

When you read normally, you often see only the shells of words -- the first and last few letters, perhaps. You "fix your eyes" on the print only three or four times per line, or less. You take in the words between these points, and get less accurate the more you stray from the point. The average reader can only take in six letters accurately with one fixation. This means you have to fix your eyes on almost every word you have written and do it twice in longer words, in order to proofread accurately. You have to look at the word, not slide over it.

Adapted with permission from SSL, University of Maryland