How To Proofread Your Work

We all have to write essays or work-related articles that are error-free. Proofreading your work for a polished result is easy to accomplish if you have ample time to do it; if you do not have time and you have to submit that one paper in a day or two. Well, you have come to the right place because today we will go over all sorts of proofreading techniques you can use.

Read your work aloud, use a free reader so that you can spot awkward sentences, always use two different spell checkers. Proofreading online is facilitated these days, but A.I. is not on point at catching grammar errors. Microsoft Word is just a spell checker, and it has never evolved from this status. With some free online tools, you can create spotless pieces of writing.

Enough talk lets go walking or writing!

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1. Let your written work ferment

Write your idea in the raw. Do not correct yourself too much as you write. Try to use the “just write method”. After your work is written, you can pick out errors later. Now set your work aside and go along with your routine. If you have the luxury of time, revisit your work after a day or two days. When you do not have time, try and relax your mind for an hour.

When you give your brain time to forget your work, you will be less likely to imagine words, that are not there, in the text. Or the double words you have typed twice.

You will be much more objective about your work, and any mistakes that may be present in your work.

2. Read your work aloud

Reading your work aloud may seem like an easy but ineffective technique. If you skip this tip you will overlook all sorts of tiny mishaps.

I always read my reviews and written work aloud before publishing them online. I am a native English speaker, which makes spotting errors easy when I hear myself say the words.

Read your text aloud first from the top down and then from the bottom upwards.

Read in a quite place and do not have background distractions like music.

The most important tip is to read aloud clearly and slowly.

If you are wondering why reading aloud is essential, then here is the ‘why’. When you read in your mind, you imagine what you wrote, and this will make you overlook entire words in sentences. Furthermore, when people read aloud, they are by default, reading slowly, but reading in your thoughts is faster. It is essential to read slowly to be fully analytical.

3. Use a free online reading tool

An online reader basically reads your texts, and this make it easy to spot awkward sentences or missing words.

I use Natural Reader, which is a free online tool. I love the fact that you do not even need to “Sign Up” and there are no hidden costs. You will not need to download anything, and it loads quickly.

All you need to do is copy paste your written piece of work onto the site and press play.

You can change the speed at which the person reads your article, and you can choose from about ten different voices, male and female. While the material is recited, you can pause it and start over or highlight the paragraph you want to hear first.

4. Online grammar checker

They are far from perfect furthermore, never rely on one specific grammar checker. I learnt this the hard way! I use Grammarly and Scribens. Although, online grammar checkers will only check the punctuation of your text, not your writing style.

Every time you check your text with two different tools, they will always pick out various issues with your text. In this way, you will be able to pick out, more thoroughly, any mistakes in your writing.

Grammarly and Scribens make minor mistakes when correcting your text, so be careful to look at the corrections they are suggesting and investigate if they are valid.

5. Do comma checks

There are many types of commas so be careful how you use them.

First, there is the list comma: I need to buy new shoes, a pair of dark glasses, and a new computer.
Then there are the commas that come after these coordinating conjunctions: or, and, but, nor, yet, so, for ( also known as the Oxford comma )
Then there is the introductory phrase comma: For example, my cats are fatter than yours.
Also, the comma that separates two independent clauses: I have a beautiful pussycat, she is extremely unwell today.
There is the extra information comma that is used like this: Tom had a busy day yesterday, his mother was unwell, that is why he is late for work. ( Note: a simple way to check if an extra information comma is used correctly, is to see if the sentence makes sense without the extra information. Look at the sentence about Tom now: Tom had a busy day yesterday, that is why he is late for work. Alternatively, If you wrote: Tom had a busy day yesterday, that is why, he is late. The sentence would not make sense if we remove the words “that is why” and thus you know there is a problem ).

6. Read from the bottom up

Firstly because we all read our text from the top down this is an exhausting exercise. Anyone will soon be put off by reading the same sentences repeatedly, so avoid this from happening by reading your last paragraph first. Do this on and off as it will give you a fresh perspective on your work.

When you have little time to give your mind a break, and you have to submit that paper first thing tomorrow then read from the bottom up. Like this, you will mess with your brain enough to make you see errors in your text.

7. Avoid or eliminate the passive voice

Yep, the passive voice is sometimes considered to be a grammatical mistake, so avoid it. There are two benefits in avoiding the passive voice. Number one it will make you less inclined to overlooked errors. The second reason is that without the passive voice, your text will sound clearer, and more direct.

Passive voice: The game was well played by the Red Socks.
Active voice: The Red Socks played a great game.

8. Do not put a comma before ‘that’

Knowing the difference between the words ‘that’ and ‘which’ is vital. You see the word ‘which’ almost always has a comma before it, but the word ‘that’ will almost never have a comma before the word. Look at the examples below.

Superman came to earth in a shuttle that his parents put him into.

Superman came to earth on a ship, which was made by his parents.

9. Print out your writing on paper

If you can, always make a print out of all your written work. It has been proven through research that reading text on paper is less stressful than reading on a screen.

So when your mind is not trying to cope with the light coming from your laptop it will have more energy to spot possible problems in your text. See the simple logic?!

Now take a red pen and circle any errors you come across on the paper, and then you can easily use it as a reference for corrections.

10. Ask someone clever enough to proofread your writing

If you have an older sibling or parent ask them to look for grammar issues in your written work. You can ask a friend, or a colleague as long as they have enough knowledge of the language.

If your siblings give you too much trouble tell them you will do their chores for them. It could work!

A fresh pair of eyes are the best proofreaders!

11. Remove extra non-content words

Removing non-content words will make your writing clearer and easy to read.

Look at the two following sentences:

Wordy and hard to read the sentence: Sam went to a park yesterday, and then he went cycling to an ice cream parlour and then he met a friend who came home with him.
Easy to read and understand: Sam went to the park, an ice cream parlour, and he came home with a friend he met.

In this way you can remove the proverbial “fluff” from your writing and make it easier to understand.

12. Make a proofreading checklist

List the types of errors you know are common and always run over your written work with the list.

Homonyms (words that sound the same but have different meanings):

Find possible misuse of these common words:

two, too, to
shear, sheer
may be, maybe
you’re, your
their, there
than, then
allowed, aloud

Look for the Oxford comma that comes after ‘and’, ‘but’, and ‘because’ if you have used it once, you have to use it throughout the text.
Check extra information commas.
Look for list commas.
Spell check.
Use two different online grammar tools ( that are free ). Always compare and contrast your work.
Look for nouns that should be capitalised.
Check the tenses of your writing, past, present and future.
Look for the passive voice and try to turn it into the active voice.
Look for incomplete sentences.

Final thoughts

Writing for work is a basic necessity, and providing a perfectly polished piece of work is what we all strive to accomplish. Keep your eye open for small common grammar crimes.

English is a difficult language because the rules change according in many different ways. Still, with a little patience and practice, you can become better at the grammar game.

Try to write your work ahead of time so that you have ample time to make improvements.

I sincerely hope that reading this post helped my readers in some way.

Do not be disheartened if you trip and stumble along the way. It takes time to master all the grammar rules.