8 tips to improve your proofreading
Ever had that hideous feeling when someone points out a mistake in your blog or email, even though you proofread it about three hundred times? Ever proudly shared your new article with friends, colleagues or your client list only for someone to casually point out that you don’t spell guarantee with three e’s or that 'sustainabilty' isn’t actually a word?
The chances are, you’ve got trapped in what I call the proofing tunnel - a dark, unreflective and stifling area where, despite the writer’s best efforts, even the most glaringly obvious errors can go undetected. (referring to my line manager Byron as 'Thyroid' in a 'meet the new team leader' email that went to 1200 customers immediately springs to mind)
But after years of experience — and many errors — I’ve developed a list of tips to ensure you can carry out efficient proofing which will drastically improve your ability to catch mistakes and enhance your brand’s messaging. I promiss. (joking)
1. Don’t just proof for spelling and grammar
A proofread doesn’t just mean making a piece of writing technically accurate. While this is important, spelling, punctuation and grammar is only half the battle. Proofreading means checking that the actual information is accurate too. So before you proofread, remind yourself: what information am I checking? Your piece’s spelling and grammar could be flawless, but if your hyperlink sends the reader to the wrong product page or your copy contains outdated or incorrect information, you’ve got a much bigger issue, because that’s not inaccurate information, it’s misdirection. In short, would you rather the town name on the sign was spelt incorrectly, or the sign spelt correctly but pointing the wrong way? Proofreading is about accuracy of detail — it’s not just a check of your writing skill.
2. Step away from the computer…
Before you proof a finished document, step away, take a break, do something else for 10 minutes, then revisit to start your final checks. Working on a document for hours, days or sometimes weeks can leave a writer with an accute case of 'I’m so over this,' so proofing gets rushed as the author is just itching to sign off the task to stay on track with a deadline or just for the sake of variation. Proofing is the last hurdle, but often due to this, it’s rushed. And rushing equals errors.
3. Read the boring bits too
Proofreading is about finding errors and correcting them. But often, a copy writer or content creator will get so focussed on the key information or crux of the article, they miss what I call the ‘dull-sentials.’
I once worked with someone who spent nearly a month writing an entire catalogue and spent almost a week proofreading it over and over to find any error before it got printed 12,000 - that’s TWELVE THOUSAND - times. And only when the final wet proof came through prior to the full print did he realise - based on someone else’s joke of 'imagine if there was a spelling mistake on the front cover ha ha' - that he hadn’t in fact proofread the front or back cover, so obsessed was he with the contents. And guess what? The title was spelt incorrectly. Literally the FIRST VISIBLE WORD of the catalogue that had taken him weeks to write and would cost tens of thousands of pounds to print was wrong.
But I’ve made similar blunders, lost in the myopia of the proofing tunnel. When my band Crystal Chapters released their first album, we had a large amount of CDs printed. Without the track names on them. This wasn’t a draft mix-up or an error by the printers. We literally neglected to think that some of our listeners might want to know what the songs were called. (Listen to the album in all its track-listed glory here)
The key message here is that proofreading isn’t just inspecting the text within a document - it’s ensuring the titles are correct, the QR codes work, email addresses check out, page numbers align with the ones in the contents - and all the other boring or unobvious things that writers often forget to check.
4. Get a non-expert to check your document
Having another person to proof or sign-off your own proof is pretty standard practice, but it helps significantly if that person doesn’t know about or isn’t invested in what you’ve written. They’ll pick up non-specifics and those 'hiding in plain sight' errors that writers often miss because they’ve become too focussed on the subject or specialism of their piece. When a writer is stuck in the proofing tunnel, there’s much that goes unseen.
5. Loud and proud
When you proof, make one of them a 'read aloud' proof. Reading your copy to yourself can often mean you read it quickly or skim it, because you’re not hearing your lack of pronunciation. But when you read your copy during proofing out loud, you’ll read it more slowly and methodically, and you’ll be more receptive to picking up errors. Most crucially though, reading out loud will mean you’ll really get your mouth around the syllables of the words, which sometimes can be the best way to root out spelling mistakes or repeated words.
It’s not always possible in the office for obvious reasons, but particularly if you’re working from home, at least once, proofread your copy loud and proud.
6. View it on different screens
Different size screens do different things to text. On a desktop, your piece might look fine, but when you preview it on a mobile or tablet, often you’re presented with errors you didn’t spot, as words previously in the middle of lines now appear more exposed at the start or end of sentences. Double or missing spaces for example that were hiding in one format can often be highlighted by the reshuffle that a change of screen size gives you, so give this a try for further accuracy assurance.
7. Make a checklist
Writing a blog or online article can give you room for the odd faux pas, because often these can be updated or amended. But if you’re writing an email or document for print, once you send - often to several thousand customers - there’s really no going back, so doing everything you can to avoid errors is key. What helped me cut out small mistakes was writing a checklist of non-negotiable things I knew I had to check every time. And unless each of these boxes have a big tick next to them, I simply don’t send it.
Your checklist will be different from mine, but I imagine the basics will be the same. From do the links work?, when am I scheduling this? and who am I sending this to? right down to has this been proofed by two other people?, are there capitals for job titles? and even have I read it out loud?, all these questions have helped me ensure that nothing is left to chance. It also means you don’t end up wasting time proofing something multiple times out of sheer doubt - if you’ve completed your checklist, you know everything’s been done, leaving you free to move on in confidence.
8. It’s not over even after it’s published.
There’s an instant relief about publishing a document online. The pressure is off. You’ve nailed it. Time to chill. Well, sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but about 80% of errors I’ve spotted in my own writing have been after I’ve published them.
I believe this is all about the psychological effects of pressure. When I’ve gone to read a proofed and published piece, I read it like a reader rather than a writer — without the tension of 'are there any mistakes?' And because the taut, pedantic process of proofreading isn’t there, often you’re relaxed enough to spot errors that you didn’t see previously, such was (ironically) the level of your copy proofing focus. So push publish, then read it again — you might be surprised by what you spot when the pressure is off and you’re out of the proofing tunnel.
So there you are - a top guide to reducing mistakes in your writing. And the key word here is reducing, not removing. Because a key part of being a writer or proofer is understanding that you will always, ALWAYS make mistakes. You're not a machine. And even if you were, you'd still make mistakes, because machines are just as liable to bugger things up as we are. But the above tips will help these mistakes feature less frequently in your writing. I hope they help yoo.
