A Simple Proofreading Guide to Keep Your Work Flawless (AI Included)A Simple Proofreading Guide to Keep Your Work Flawless (AI Included)

A Simple Proofreading Guide to Keep Your Work Flawless (AI Included)

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What is Proofreading?

Proofreading is that last stage of editing before sending a written work to be published. Unlike developmental editing(which focuses on big-picture structure in a longer work like a story or article) or copyediting(aka line editing, which focuses on the expression of ideas on the sentence and paragraph levels and makes sure that the language flows well), proofreading is primarily focusing on fixing mistakes.

Proofreading looks for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. It makes sure words are used correctly and names are spelled and capitalized properly.

Sometimes, a proofreader will catch a bigger issue — like misuse of a word or clumsy wording — that they flag for a higher-level editor or the author to check. But because proofreading is so late in the workflow, those sorts of flags are reserved for things that would trip up the reader, not the proofreader’s personal preferences.

Proofreaders make sure the text adheres to the preferred editorial style, whether that’s Chicago Style, AP Style, MLA, or APA — or a hybrid house style (many companies have their own preferred editorial style).

The editorial style determines the correct use of:

Hyphens in compound words
Punctuation and capitalization conventions for media titles, subheadings, degrees, job/personal titles (Mr., Mrs.)
Oxford/serial comma
Spaces around M-dashes

And that’s just naming a few.

Before you start proofreading anything, you need to know what style you’re proofreading for.

Some Tools to Keep on Hand

You can skip the red pen. After all, most editing today takes place on the screen with Google Docs’ “Suggesting” function, Microsoft Word’s track changes or with AI writing assistants like Wordtune. But there are still a few things you’ll want to keep handy for easy reference.

Dictionary: I use the dictionary app on my computer, but you could use dictionary.com or merriam-webster.com. A virtual dictionary will be more up-to-date than the paper behemoths collecting dust on your shelf.

A dictionary desktop app is a helpful tool for anyone who writes and edits a lot.

Editorial Style Guide: I prefer a physical copy of the Chicago or AP Style guide, but you can also subscribe to these guides online for the most up-to-date style conventions.
House Style Guide (if applicable): If you’re proofreading for a company that has their own style guide, make sure to keep that guide open on your desktop as you review their content. If your company doesn’t maintain its own style guide, create a working document to keep track of the editorial conventions you set as you edit.
Notepad and Pen: These tools come in handy when you’re editing a longer piece and need to keep track of various terms and conventions that come up along the way. More on this in the next section.
AI Writing Tools: AI writing assistants such as Wordtune can be a huge help when trying to catch grammatical errors as well as typos.

9 Proofreading Techniques to Help You Catch Embarrassing Mistakes

1. Run your text through a spelling and grammar checker.

This initial step is great for catching low-hanging fruit as well as some obvious yet tricky errors that can sometimes make it past a standard skimming. I like to use Wordtune for this, but any decent grammar tool should do the trick.

Get Wordtune for free > Get Wordtune for free >

2. Make a list of common mistakes, and search for them.

Every writer has their weaknesses, and as an editor, you’ll probably pick up on what those are. Maybe the writer you’re working with always uses serial commas or keeps misspelling their main source’s name. As you go through the document, write down the mistakes you come across. After you’ve finished your first round of edits, hit Command + F (or Ctrl + F for Microsoft) and search for each of those mistakes.

3. Every time you come across a proper noun, look it up.

Is that actually how Mark Ruffalo spells his last name? Is it Eiffel or Eifell? St. Petersburg or St. Petersberg? Berenstain or Berenstein?

4. Change the font and size of the text.

Save this trick for the second or third round through the document. Changing the font and size of the text can help you avoid that glazey-eyed problem where all the letters start looking wrong and you start questioning if “the” is actually spelled t-h-e.

5. Read it out loud.

I reserve this approach for the second round through a piece that was pretty clean. Reading the work out loud can help you see where the grammar might be off or where a comma is out of place.

6. Take a break and read it backwards.

Do I mean that you should look at the heading above and read “backwards it read and break a take”?
Sure.
Or you could simply read that line — 5. Take a break and read it backwards. — followed by the previous line — However, it might not help …— followed by the previous line, and on and on.

7. Make a checklist of specific components to check on their own round of edits.

You can create this checklist as you go through the document on your first and second rounds. You’ll still want to check those elements on those rounds — but you’ll also go through the document again only paying attention to the headings, then again for the page numbers, again for the image captions, and so on.

8. Search for — and cut — filler words.

Do you (or the writer) tend to overuse that, really, actually, then, so, or any other words? Take note and then hit Command + F ( Ctrl + F) to search for those. I’ll do this sometimes and find 12 instances of then in a 1,500-word blog. After I go through, I might be left with two.

9. Proofread your edits.

Believe it or not, sometimes editors insert mistakes when they change the text. Once you’re done going through the document itself, go back through and check your edits. (I like to read through any comments I left to make sure they don’t have embarrassing mistakes.)

Conclusion

At this point, your document will hopefully be error-free — or as close to it as humanly possible. For an extra backup, you can always run your word processor’s spelling and grammar check, but you’ve probably already caught more than that machine will. 😉