Proofreading techniques

How to proofread your essay easily?

Each essay goes through series of procedures which will lead to a quality write-up. Every stage has its own importance and helps in shaping up an essay accordingly.

Proofreading is one such important stage of an essay which completes it. Regarded as the last stage, proofreading has the ability to give your essay a new dimension in its own way.

What is proofreading?

Proofreading is a type of reading which is done for the purpose of marking any errors found in an essay and eliminating them.

Why is proofreading required?

An essay is solely written for the purpose of communicating content to the readers. To avoid miscommunication with regards to the content produced, proofreading is required. Here we have listed few more points which states its importance.

1.It becomes a critical eye for any errors that get spotted.

2.It makes a write-up look professional.

3.It brings attention towards the inconsistencies and allows to correct them bringing a new dimension.

8 proofreading techniques that will make your essay the best one

1.Read the draft word by word: The first step to proofread an essay is read the created draft, word by word. In the stage of editing, there might be some silly mistakes or inconsistencies that might have gone unnoticed.

To avoid such errors to get published, they must be checked at this stage. Reading words little by little will be an advantage to the write-up.

2.Mark the errors in terms of grammatical mistakes: To proofread, the draft must be read well. When an error is spotted, they must be marked immediately so that it becomes easy to fix those errors.

3.Trust your vocabulary: Though there is an advancement in technology and computers, you need to trust your gut and vocabulary.

Automated spellcheckers might correct the mistakes but having a keen eye on your reading might be helpful in some situations.

4.Check the draft after sometime: Proofreading needs more grammatical skills than creativity. If the draft is proofread continuously without taking breaks, chances are that some mistakes might be overlooked; which is not the motive of proofreading.

Hence draft must be checked keenly, neatly with a slow pace. This will help in getting a better quality essay. 

5.Read aloud: Reading out words aloud is a technique used by students to remember the content well. Here too while proofreading, if words are read aloud, silly yet adversely affecting mistakes can be avoided.

6.Break up the draft into sections:  Another best technique to proofread the content is to break the draft into section(not literally) and proofread each section in detail. This will make the process slow but has more advantage towards getting a better write-up.

7.Check on the language: There are certain words which have the same meaning but are spelled differently. For example, word “grey” is spelled in British language whereas in American English it is written as “gray”. Care must be taken not switch between British and American spellings.

8.Do not use computer: While proofreading, paper format must be chosen as opposed to computer medium. This helps in spotting the errors and fixing them in a better way.

Common errors that should be proofread

 Here are few of the most common errors that must be proofread well.

1.Capitalization: As a grammar rule, capitalization is required only when a sentence starts. Each sentence when it starts, it must have a capital letter.

In few of the cases, there might an occurrence of a capital letter which must be entertained.

Example: John is in the United States, he will return by tomorrow. 

2.Punctuation mark: Punctuation mark ( period, comma, question mark) must be used appropriately in order to make sense of the content that is being written. There are several cases where misuse of punctuation marks has created disasters. 

3.Aportrophe:  Apostrophes have a great impact on the writing. If they are misused, it can lead to different meaning.

For example:  Girl’s wearing the sock.

                       Girls’ wearing sock.

Here the first example means a single girl whereas the second example indicates plural form of it.

4.Homonyms: There are certain words in English language sound similar but are spelled differently indicating a different meaning. Such words are called homonyms.Examples of such words are:

1.Their and there

2.Affect and effect

3.Conform and confirm

5.Run on sentences: Two independent clauses when are combined without any punctuation marks leads to run on sentences. Such must be avoided in the draft that is written.

6.Contractions: Essays have different types of styles such as formal and informal. Formal writing always discourages the use of contractions.

Contractions such as won’t, you’re, you’ve must be avoided in a formal essay.

7.Spellings of long words: Care must be taken when lengthy words are used in the essay. There might be a possibility where spellings can get wrong. Such mistakes must be proofread properly.

These are few of the tips that should be taken into serious considerations while an essay is being proofread.