A Better Way to Proofread
Because proofreading is important, and not everyone does it well
I seriously doubt any writer has ever said, “My favorite part of being a writer is getting to proofread my work.” Okay, there may be one or two writers out there who say this — but let’s face it, they’re weird. They probably color-code their entire lives, and they have an Excel spreadsheet for everything.
The thing with proofreading is that it sounds so simple. Read back through what I’ve written and make sure I didn’t make any mistakes. The problem, though, is even when it’s a fairly obvious mistake — not one that requires a specialized knowledge of English grammar — sometimes our brains just don’t process it. Sometimes our brains choose to see what they believe they wrote.
And most grammar-check programs suck.
So here’s a proofreading trick that I use to help me see what I have actually written, not what I think I have written. I start at the bottom and go up. When I finish this article, I’m going to reread the last sentence, followed by the second-to-last sentence, and on up to the top. Taking the sentences out of context keeps my brain from switching to autopilot when I’m looking for weird grammar, missing words, or stray commas. (And now I’m making a mental note to write an article about stray commas. Help control the punctuation population; get your commas spayed and neutered).
Of course, the best way to proofread is to let the writing sit for a while. Let it take a nap, eat a sandwich, do some deep thinking. After the writing is relaxed, come back to it and proofread. But the reality of this platform is that many of us are trying to publish every day, and that means we don’t have time to let our writing age a little before we send it out into the world.
