3 Tips for Better Proofreading
I have previously mentioned the importance of proofreading your comments, and countless other blogs have hammered home the importance of proofreading your posts.
For those of you who now realize the importance of proofreading, here are three tips that can help you become a better proofreader.
1) Step Away. Take a break and walk away from your post (or comment) for a few minutes. If it’s not time-critical, save it and wait a day before proofreading. The important thing is to get your mind off it for a short period. When something is fresh in your mind, you have a tendency to read what you meant to write instead of what you actually typed. Flushing it from your mind with some other thought or activity can reduce that tendency by a significant amount.
2) Use Word Processor Tools. Write your post in a word processing program, and then use the program’s spell-check feature to check for errors. You still need to proofread carefully so as not to miss things the spell-check may overlook, such as correctly spelled words used incorrectly.
3) Read It Backwards. This is my favorite. Read your post backwards. Start with the last word and work your way through the text backwards. Mind you, you don’t want to read the individual words backwards, just the text. For example, you wouldn’t read the last sentence like this: “.txet eht tsuj ,sdrawkcab…” That wouldn’t make any sense! No, you’ll read it like this: “text. the just backwards, words individual…” This way, you are focusing on the individual words (and their spelling) rather than the content. This way, too, you reduce the tendency (by a very significant degree in this case!!!) to read what you meant to write rather than what you actually typed.
I don’t remember where I learned the last tip, but it’s one I have used for years.
I hope these tips help you in your proofreading!
Read it backwards never heard that one before. I’ll try it out
Wish I could remember where I learned that, so I could give credit to the source. But, I have used that method for years, and have no idea anymore where I first heard of it. Don’t know if it was online somewhere or in something archaic like a book or magazine.
I personally use the ‘Step Away’ method…
I do both the “Step Away” and “Read It Backwards” methods when I can. I generally only use a word processor’s spell-check on large documents. But, you still really have to proofread things in their entirety by old-fashioned means. You can’t always trust the computer to catch everything, especially grammatical errors, “there” and “their” and–don’t forget!–”they’re.”
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