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Have you ever proofread a letter, leaflet or information sheet 20 times, then printed out 10,000 copies, only for someone to look at it and point out a glaring error? Yes I guess we've all been there, done that! If you are responsible for proofreading important documents (and aren't all<\/i> documents important, including every email message you send?) then here are my tips for effective proofreading: <\/span><\/p>\n 1. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Avoid distractions<\/span><\/b>. It's best to proofread in a quiet environment, with no disturbances such as phones, background conversation etc.<\/span><\/p>\n 2. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Read the work out loud<\/span><\/b>. Using proper intonation will help you to spot faulty sentence construction as well as bad punctuation and grammar. Remember to articulate every word, especially the endings.<\/span><\/p>\n 3. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Concentrate on reading one word at a time<\/span><\/b>. This takes practice. It's fairly common to skim over the words when we read normally. Try to make a conscious effort to stare at each word in turn. This isn't as slow as it sounds – it's just a different reading technique, and it helps.<\/span><\/p>\n 4. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Read one line at a time<\/span><\/b>. This is useful for longer documents – use a ruler to guide your eyes so that you don't miss the odd line.<\/span><\/p>\n 5. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Take a break occasionally<\/span><\/b>. Again with longer documents, you need a break now and again. Everyone loses concentration after a while, so set a time limit and then take a break.<\/span><\/p>\n 6. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Look for inconsistencies<\/span><\/b> in style and presentation. This applies to things like headings that suddenly switch from capitals to lower case, or a change in font or spacing.<\/span><\/p>\n 7. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Leave some time between writing and proofreading<\/span><\/b>. Reading with a fresh approach will help you to spot more errors.<\/span><\/p>\n 8. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Print out a hard copy for the final proofreading<\/span><\/b>. Somehow we always manage to miss a few errors if we rely on proofreading on screen.<\/span><\/p>\n 9. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Keep your knowledge of punctuation and grammar up to date<\/span><\/b>. Unless you know what is correct, you cannot spot mistakes.<\/span><\/p>\n 10. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Ask someone else to do a final check of important documents.<\/span><\/b> It’s funny how we tend to be able to find other people's mistakes much more easily than our own!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you ever proofread a letter, leaflet or information sheet 20 times, then printed out 10,000 copies, only for someone to look at it and point out a glaring error? Yes I guess we've all been there, done that! If you are responsible for proofreading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n