Manual proofreading is hard work.  That’s why we’ve always recommended people shift to using an English checking software for combing through the grammar and other mechanical elements of their work.

If you insist on doing your proofreading old-school style, here are some ideas to make it a more efficient and effective process:

1. Do it by chunks.  If you’re working on a long piece of writing, perform your proofreading by chunks, instead of trying to sort everything in one fell swoop.  For short pieces, you can even chunk by paragraph if you’re up to it.
2. Look for grammar and spelling problems first.  Spend the first pass looking for those two categories of problems.  If you find it a little difficult to identify grammar issues, try reading your paragraphs aloud.  Wrong grammar will usually sound awkward and stifled.
3. Check for overuse of language.  Pay attention to the way you use adjectives and adverbs.  Many writers, no matter how experienced, tend to veer on the wrong side of overuse, especially with empty modifiers like “very,” “severely,” and “slightly.”
4. Check for formatting problems. Don’t trust your word processor blindly when it comes to fonts, page numbers and other formatting details, especially if you intend to print out a hardcopy.
5. Avoid rewriting.  The purpose of proofreading is to correct small items.  As such, don’t rewrite large parts of text when you’re already at this stage even if you suddenly thought up something better.  If you do, you’ll end up having to jump back through previous steps in the process.  While there’s nothing wrong with that, it can hurt you if you’re working towards a tight deadline.

There are blogs I really enjoy a lot.  Majority of them are well-written, informative and wields a sharp sense of humor.  The rest?  They’re also informative and witty, although they could be written better.  Every time I compare the writing, the gap is simple: one obviously gets proofread (at the least, by a good writing software), the other quickly posted from draft.

If you’re not going to proofread, then you’re doing your writing a disservice.   Your grasp of material, your ability for humor and your natural talent with rhythm all end up weighed down by erstwhile avoidable infractions.  As a result, you end up with writing that’s never as good as it could be.

Even the best writers make mistakes when they compose their drafts.  Typographical errors, misplaced punctuations and grammatical foibles are part and parcel of almost every first draft ever written.   And when you don’t use a writing software, those same mistakes end up on your final product.

As we’ve said, proofreading doesn’t need to be such an involved process.  Nowadays, there’s just no need to invest a full hour poring over a 500-word blog post to check it for mistakes and apply appropriate corrections.  A few minutes and an English writing software can get your work from good to great capably enough.

Do you prefer to do your proofreading manually?  While I can’t, for the life of me, commend you for that decision with the current availability of affordable proofreading software, here are some tips that can help ease your process:

1. Avoid proofreading in one fell swoop.  Instead, do it for one item at a time each pass.  Say, for this pass, you’ll check for punctuation; for the next, you’ll make sure each sentence is a complete sentence; and so on.  This helps simplify  what you’re checking for, keeping you focused on the task at hand.
2. Try proofreading from the end going backwards.  This lets you see your writing in a different light, which is very helpful when you’re trying to proofread in an objective manner.
3. Break the paper into segments and finish each segment first.  Another way to enhance objectivity is to proofread part by part (such as by paragraph or after every few sentences).  That way, you’re taking each segment out of the context of the whole, allowing you to treat ideas without the rest of the topic to clutter your thoughts.

Again, we have to express our concerns here.  Being able to proofread manually is admirable, but it’s unnecessary.  If anything, your refusal to use a writing software is holding you back from being the best writer you can be.

Curious about what professional proofreaders do when they’re paid to work their magic on a piece of writing?

Multiple Passes

Pros pass over papers several times over, checking for different things each time.  Every one will have their own specific methods, of course, though most will check for the following things separately:

• Logic
• Coherence
• Grammar and punctuation
• Sentence flow and sense
• Style and tone
• Factual correctness
• And more

As you can imagine, proofreading that way entails a lot of work.  It’s the thorough manner to get things done, though, if you want to produce the best paper possible.

Proofreading Software

Can proofreading software give you the same level of detailed correctness?  In all honesty, it won’t be able to cover all that as precisely as a human proofreader can.  The current generation of writing software doesn’t know how to check references to verify correctness of information, for instance, nor can it evaluate with 100% accuracy whether a sentence makes sense.

Using one, however, you can get plenty of help in a lot of those areas.  When your program fixes flaws in grammar, punctuation, cohesion and style, it can end up improving a lot of the other areas of your work, leaving much lesser problems for a human proofreader to deal with.

Need to proofread a document?  There are four ways you can go about it, each one with their own pros and cons.

1. Check it manually yourself.  If you’re going to check your work this way, use a proofreading checklist to  tick off all the items you’re going to check for.   You can find recommended checklists from many writing books and websites.  We’d suggest taking one of those and adding your own items, particularly those that you find yourself frequently erring on.
2. Have a friend check.  It’s tough to evaluate your own work for correctness.  Most of the time, you’re emotionally invested in it and that makes being objective damn near impossible.  Having a friend check, especially one who’s experienced in proofreading, should prove a much better choice.
3. Use an automated grammar software.   It’s 2010.  We’ve got software for everything, including proofreading.   You can cut the time you spend on the activity considerably by simply using a writing checker software.   Believe me when I say the results of these modern proofreading tools are highly impressive.
4. Use an automated grammar checker first, followed by manual check later.  If you’re one of those who remain unimpressed with software-based solutions to something that used to require so much personal attention as proofreading, you can use the software and follow it up with a manual checking later.  At worst, you’ll confirm your suspicions about grammar software not being up to par.  In some cases, you may end up surprising yourself with the results.  Either way, you’ll save yourself plenty of time.

Proofreading web content works just like with any other type of writing. Except, of course, that the medium adds a few extra things to check for.

You should proof for clarity and correctness, as with any other work, following proper standards and running down a checklist of possible mistakes. A few tips to ensure best results:

1. Do proofreading while you’re at a mental peak. Being sleepy heightens the chances of missing errors. You need your concentration.

2. Use the best writing software you can find to help clean up the text. Some people recommend using a software for a quick pass-through, but supplementing it with a manual do-over. Personally, I think you should be able to skip the second part if you have a really good software on board.

Since you’re proofreading web content, you’re going to have to check for potential errors that may not be present in regular text. After all, the medium allows for a different formatting than what you’ll have with documents that you intend to publish in a journal or print out on paper.

1. Check that all anchor links are pointing to pages that exist. This is a very common error that finds its way even into high-profile websites.

2. Verify that all-information is up-to-date. If some of the details you include are time sensitive, let the readers know that they are valid as of the publication date (state the date – you never want anyone guessing).

3. Check that the formatting and layout work across different browsers and platforms, especially if you’re targeting a more general audience.

Need help editing your articles and essays?  Here are a few tips gathered from freelancers who learned the hard way.

1. Save every version before revising. Make sure you do it with a different filename.  The last thing you want is to replace an entire paragraph, only to realize that the original is actually better, and finding out that you don’t have a copy anymore.

2.  Focus on one thing at a time. Want to revise for content?  For cohesion?  For grammar? For flow?  Go through the text with only one of those in mind every time.  Go back later for the rest.

3. Be strategic. Go after the major mistakes first (e.g. a bad main thesis, poor arguments).  After you’ve settled those, begin revising for pacing and other less significant issues.  When those are done, turn your attention to writing style.  If you’re happy with that, then jump right in and begin fixing mechanical issues, such as grammar and sentence structure.  You can use an English editing software for the last process.

4.  Learn to stop. Too much rewriting can suck the life right out of your work.  The trick is to stop when you’ve already done enough.  Don’t aim for perfect – there’s no such thing.

You’ve put together your first draft and run it through a copywriting software.  After the automated corrections have been performed, it’s only prudent to give it a run-over to see what else needs extra polish.

While different writers will have varying weaknesses (hence, the frequent suggestion of maintaining a proofreading checklist), there are three points in most pieces of writing that should receive due attention.  Some editors refer to it as the “danger points,” since it’s usually the areas that they end up having to revise.

The lead. How good is your lead at introducing the story?  One trick that many editors do is to check how the article reads without the first paragraph.  If the piece can stand without it, there’s a good chance that your real lead is in that second cluster of sentences, with the first paragraph being nothing but ineffective filler.

Transitions. You may have been mindful of your transitions, but that doesn’t mean it’s up to par with the standards of good writing.  More than merely providing a segway from one paragraph to the next, strong transitions let the reader know why the next section is relevant and necessary to complete the picture.

Indulgent sections. Remember the writing advice that goes, “Find your favorite parts and remove it”?  Yes, those portions of text that bring a smile across your face and makes you feel like you’re the best writer ever.  Editors usually hate them and they do so for good reason: writing should be about being clear and informative, not brilliant or clever.

Looking for a method to follow when you’re editing for cohesion?  If you haven’t developed your own system yet, you can experiment with the tried-and-tested Diagnose-Analyze-Revise process.

How It Works

Diagnose. The diagnosis process involves underlining the first few words of each paragraph (first three to five words).  Skip introductory and transitional phrases, such as “of course,” “as you may have heard” and “for the most part.”

Analyze. Now that you’ve got the paper marked off, the next step is to read through the underlined portions of text.  Do the underlined parts hint at the use of related subjects throughout the piece?  Are those connections easy to understand?  Read it per paragraph, gauging how tightly-focused on a single topic each one is.

Revision. If any part of the text appears to detract from the cohesiveness of the piece, it’s time to perform some revisions.  Underlined parts that don’t appear to supplement the topic can usually be improved by rewriting them, such that the subject appears right on the first part of the sentence.

Post-Revision

After revising your piece, make sure to put it through an English writing software.  The last thing you want is to put all that editing work in, only to leave your paper with grammar and spelling mistakes.  You’ve done the hard part on your own.  Make sure the writing doesn’t suffer for something that is numerous times less complicated.

Editing your text while you write is perfectly possible.   However, being able to do one thing doesn’t mean it’s what you should be doing.

When you write, it’s always best to let the words just flow.  Judging what you put down on paper as it happens leaves you second-guessing your work.  Not only does it break your flow, it wastes a lot of time doing something best accomplished much later on during the process.

The Writing Phase

During the writing phase, your job is to write.  Whether you do it from an outline or from a clear idea in your head, the goal is to take those concepts and put it into words that other people can read and understand.

What about clarity? What about good grammar?  What about active sentences?  While those are important, they are best taken care of after you have the first draft done.  The faster you write that first draft, the sooner you can work on “decorating” the piece.

Editing Phase

In the editing phase, you read through the text and decide which errors to fix, which parts to dress up and which sections to leave out altogether.  The goal is to fashion your writing into a form that will be palatable to your readers, with the intent of helping them to understand your message.

Would you ever use a writing software while you’re in the middle of creating your second paragraph?  Of course, not.  The common sense logic behind that is the same reason why you’d want to reserve editing after the initial pieces is written.