Aug | 30 | 2007

Polishing Your Writing: Some Proofreading Tricks (Part 2)

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing

I was just wondering, between now and the last post have any of you tried the two proofreading tricks I mentioned last time? To be honest, I rarely read my work aloud but I do go through it after I am done writing. After that post though, I tried reading it aloud – walk the talk, you know – and yes, once again, its effectiveness was affirmed. Anyhow, here are a couple more tricks that would help you proofread your writing.

I know many of you out there are aiming for a paperless society but sometimes, nothing beats paper. Now don’t get me wrong – I am as “techie” as the next person. I can’t live without my PC – Word, Excel, Outlook and all. The thing is, when it comes to checking lists and proofreading written work, I always find it easier and more satisfying to actually have paper in your hands. I do not know if this is psychological or if it’s just me. Why don’t you try it and let me know what you think?

Here’s a no-brainer: ever hear of the function “spell-check”? Yes it works. Just click on the button and you’re good to go – well not really. Spell-check can detect wrong spelling of course but it cannot detect wrong usage. For example, instead of “too” you accidentally typed in “to.” Spell-check would not flag you for that. I guess a combination of these tricks would be the best way to go.

Before I end this post, I read somewhere that one way of proofreading is to read your document backwards. The writer was saying that reading out of sequence helps you spot errors. I don’t know, I’ve never tried it – maybe I will after this post. What do you think?

Comment (1)

One Response

Jeremy
31|Aug|2007

The reading backwards thing makes sense. When you read normally over your own written thoughts, your brain tends to filter out little errors because you already know what you meant to say.

Reading backwards makes you look at each word individually.

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