Proofreading Online Writing

You have just finished that killer article and are ready eager to push that publish button.  "Wait, I need to edit my article," you think.  Suddenly your post has gotten delayed.  

Yay, the proofreading step; the step that all writers, especially beginning ones, love, right? 

Okay, maybe not.  However, proofreading, is as essential as writing the body of the article; You must do it to make the article successful.

Actually, you don’t have to do it.  I’m sure as a reader that you love reading grammar mistakes and sentences that don’t make sense.  That’s the type of stuff that makes readers want to read more.

Not to mention, the proofreading stage is a fantastic time to add more content.

Proofreading really isn’t that bad.  It really doesn’t take more than 20 minutes, and it can actually be enjoyable.  What’s not enjoyable about making an article better? 

For the most part fear of proofreading is in the writer’s head.  Once you have make it a habit., you really won’t fear it as much.  It’s much easier than actually writing the article.

The Importance of Proofreading

• Helps prevent grammatical errors.
• Prevents spelling errors.
• Improves the article’s flow and sentence structure.
• Gives the writer a chance to analyze the article’s structure.
• Allows the writer to take out most of the wordiness of the article.
• Allows the writer to add in points that he/she may have forgotten to add.
•  Allows author to take out unneeded words.

How to Proofread

Before proofreading, I highly recommend that you let the article "sit" for a few days.  Leaving your article draft will allow you to come back to it with a fresh mind.  I find that I can find errors more easily, figure out what should be deleted, and add content much better when I wait a few days.  

The first thing that every proofreader should do it run their article through a spellchecker.  Most of your spelling mistakes will be fixed.  However, there are some things that get through such as "there."  You may have actually wanted to use "their."  Things like this example come up sometimes, so be sure to be on the look-out for them.

I recommend reading your article out loud slowly and clearly.  You will be able to find more mistakes this way, because writers tend to look over their mistakes when reading silently.  You can also tell what sound good and what sound confusing or wordy this way.

Whenever you come to a mistake, correct it.  Never read through the article before making your corrections because you will often forget some of the things that need to be corrected.

Furthermore

This post is a part of Web Journey’e Online Writing Series: The Writing Process.   

 

 photo credit: quinn.anya

Tagged as: online writing series, proofreading