How to Ensure Everyone in the Office Proof Reads a Document

Proofreading properly isn't every bit like shooting fish in a barrel equally it might start announced. Y'all're constantly fighting with your eyes and brain, both of which want to tell you that everything on the folio is just fine.

One trouble is that our brains are really a scrap too clever. Did you know that every bit long as the first and final letters of a word are in the right place, the centre can be a complete slaughterhouse and chances are you'll still be able to sympathize it?

Ltlite wnoedr taht tpyos are otefn msiesd, wulndo't you arege?

And as the author of a document, it's particularly hard to spot any mistakes in it. Yous know what you meant to say, so your brain will conveniently hop over missing words, typos and jumbled sentences. (This is why, in an ideal world, someone else would proofread your work – and you'd proof theirs.)

Simply, catchy or not, it is a critical step. The result of giving it a miss can exist anything from mild embarrassment in front end of colleagues to the loss of an unimpressed prospect – or landing in legal or financial hot water considering of an overlooked error.

Earlier we go on to the how-to, let'due south briefly clarify what proofreading is – and what it isn't.

What is proofreading?

Proofreading is:

• about ensuring consistency and accuracy
• essential – it's a matter of professional reputation (and more)
• the concluding line of defense – the cadet stops with you.

And permit'southward not forget, it's besides:

• hard work – information technology tin be pedantic, exacting, tiring and repetitive.

What it isn't

Proofreading is not:

• editing
• an excuse to rewrite
• a 'quick expect'.

These caveats are particularly worth noting if you are proofreading someone else's work. Establish for certain what they are expecting you to exercise: exercise they desire a pure proofread or editing suggestions besides? Note too that editing and proofing are technically two different things, and with expert reason: your brain works all-time focusing on i at a time.

Whether yous're proofreading your ain work or a colleague's, to practise it effectively, you need to repress the urge to skip, skim and hope for the best. Information technology's time to knuckle down and procedure every word. These proofreading tips will come across you through.

Proofreading techniques for perfect results

1. Get some distance

If you try and proofread direct after yous terminate writing, you will be bullheaded to your typos and everything will announced exactly as you lot expect it to. And so accept a break, exercise something else and preferably go out it overnight. So come up dorsum to it fresh.

2. Set for success

Speaking of fresh, aim to proofread at a fourth dimension when y'all volition exist. Work out what this means for y'all and your circadian rhythms, only morning is more often than not your best bet.

Make sure y'all accept everything you need to mitt: a pencil for pointing, a ruler or blank paper to identify beneath each line (so you're not distracted by the text ahead), and a list of what to look out for. If your visitor has a style guide, have that at your elbow or open on your computer as well. It will clarify your system'south take on language or formatting issues that have no official right or wrong. For case, whether your company uses U.k. or United states spelling, when you lot should capitalise task titles and how to punctuate bullet points.

iii. Print it out (when information technology counts)

Working on a hard re-create is nonetheless the most surefire way to spot errors in a certificate. Print it out (on scrap paper), walk away from the distractions of your desk and requite it all your attention.

Of course, this is not the most environmentally friendly approach, so you might choose to salve it for the about business-critical documents.

An alternative is to salvage the certificate as a PDF or send the email to yourself. Looking at the same words in a different format (fifty-fifty in your own inbox) helps to reset your eye and spot errors you might otherwise miss.

4. Be methodical

Take the text line past line, using the ruler or blank paper every bit a guide (to cover the upcoming text) and pointing to each word with your pencil or stylus.

This is important to annul how you usually read. Usually, your optics don't travel smoothly over everything – they move in little jumps (known as saccades) and fixate only on cardinal words, while your heed fills in the blanks.

If you're proofreading onscreen, you can still use the pencil-pointing technique – and try the paper guide too.

Go through the document one time for sense, a second time for technical accurateness and (if you've time) again for luck. Got a short document? Read it backwards to better spot typos.

If you adopt to watch rather than read, you can besides check out the guidance (and some of the office staff looking sheepish) in this video:

five. Read it aloud

Working from home or in a serenity office? Read the document out to yourself. You'll trip over the awkward $.25 in a way that you lot didn't when simply tracking the words in your mind, and you'll notice missing or extra words.

Meliorate still, become someone else to read it out to yous, or use text-to-spoken language engineering science in Give-and-take, Google Docs or Adobe.

half dozen. Make your marking

Covering documents in comments, annotations and scribbles tin before long get messy – and brand information technology very difficult for the writer to piece of work through. That's why official proof-correction marks be.

The industry-recognised mark-up symbols in the UK (and increasingly effectually the earth) come up from the British Standards Institution (BSI). They work past mark upward the text itself with these symbols, so making a corresponding marking in the margin to describe attention to and clarify the correction.

This might seem fussy or old-fashioned, but there's good sense behind this long-established practice. Information technology is an efficient and curtailed autograph that communicates a lot of information in a small corporeality of space.

Of course, it only works if it is a shared language, so it will need to be embraced across your team or organisation.

A few of the key mark-up symbols. You tin can order a laminated re-create of the full set at the BSI website.

If y'all're working on a PDF, you can apply the Adobe mark-upwards tools to highlight your corrections – and be careful to use them consistently, to help both you and your colleagues.

For instance:

• For changes to the text, apply the Insert text, Strikethrough and Add together note functions.
• Use callouts for instructions on formatting​.
• For queries, use the Highlight tool and create an accompanying popular-up notation to add your question.

In Discussion and Google Docs, yous take the alternative option of Runway Changes (this is the 'Suggesting' function in Google Docs), although these are arguably better suited to editing than proofreading.

vii. Beware missing the obvious

Requite special attention to title pages, headings, subheadings, even field of study lines – it'southward also easy to assume that in that location couldn't perchance be mistakes in the large text. But that's where disregarded errors volition howl the loudest.

Be careful effectually line endings also – it's surprisingly piece of cake to miss words repeated at the end of one and the get-go of the next.

8. Know the common culprits

Beingness enlightened of repeat-offender errors ways yous tin can be poised and ready to catch them. Once you've been proofreading for a while, you may first to keep your own list. In the meantime, here are some key common mistakes to go along your eyes peeled for:

Grammer

Matching verbs and subjects: the verb or 'doing word' in the sentence needs to be in the correct form (singular or plural) to go with the person or thing doing information technology. For example:

The summary of various points comes at the cease of the chapter.​

The 'summary' is the subject and is atypical. So the verb 'comes' is in the singular course rather than in the plural class ('come up').​

Beware commonage nouns, such as 'public', 'commission', 'lath', 'audience', 'team': these tin can be either singular or plural, but need to be treated as either one consistently. Similarly, visitor names are typically treated equally singular merely non always, then check your organisation'due south style guide.

Comma splice: This is a specific kind of run-on judgement, where a comma is used betwixt what could be two full sentences. Use a semi-colon or total stop instead, or add a word like 'for', 'and', 'simply' or 'so' after the comma.

Punctuation

Mutual slip-ups include:

• unnecessary, missing or misplaced apostrophes
• inconsistent hyphenation (eg coordinate/co-ordinate)
• mixing up hyphens and dashes
• punctuating incorrectly around brackets.

If y'all feel like you could apply a refresher, it'southward worth brushing upwardly on your punctuation and grammer to check y'all're on top of the rules.

Often-confused words

These words sound the same equally each other simply are spelled differently and have different meanings, so practise your all-time to go on them direct:

• lead and led
• costless and complementary
• affect and consequence
• stationary and stationery
• bear and bare

And while spelling and grammar checkers have come a very long mode (with many continuing to improve all the fourth dimension, thanks to car learning), notwithstanding never assume they are infallible. Continue to look out for misspelled words and homophones (words that sound the aforementioned merely are spelled differently).

And if you lot know you accept your own blind spots, keep a list of those handy.

9. Look over layout

Depending at what phase you're doing the proofreading, y'all may likewise need to pay attending to the layout and formatting of the document. Hither, continue your eyes peeled for things like:

• captions – are they on the right items?
• the contents page – exercise headings/page numbers lucifer actual copy?
• consistency of style – bold, italics etc
• widows (these are lone lines at top of a page) and orphans (these are lone words on a line)
• page numbers and other footer or header fabric – cheque they are authentic and in the correct social club
• headings – cheque relevance and for repetition, and that the levels of heading are correct and consistent
• numbering – cheque the sequence.

10. Don't forget the finer details

As well as looking for typos, incorrect or missing words, dodgy punctuation and suspect grammar, requite the facts a last once-over.

Are the decimal points in the right place? Have you written millions where yous meant billions? Take you lot spelled the customer'south proper name right – and right every time? And cheque telephone numbers by calling them. It's surprisingly easy to transpose numbers when writing them.

Practice makes perfect

Finally, retrieve that – like well-nigh things – proofreading is a skill you can develop. The more than you proofread, the sharper your center will become.

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Need to upskill your team in proofreading to ensure consistency and accurateness in your output? We run tailored in-company proofreading courses which include bespoke, practical exercises built using your own content. Arrive bear upon if y'all think we can help.

Image credit: 9nong / Shutterstock

How to Ensure Everyone in the Office Proof Reads a Document

Source: https://www.writing-skills.com/how-to-proofread-a-document

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