Top 15 Proofreading Tricks for Everyone
There is nothing worse than sending out something you have written only to spot errors in it afterward. Those tiny errors haunt and are the reason why proofreading is an essential step. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve written an email, presentation or novel. You need it to be error-free.
Think of your poor readers. You don’t want them stumbling on your poor punctuation, misspelled words or clumsy construction.
The problem is that proofreading requires a shift from the creative writing mode into a detailed perfectionist state. It requires different skills than writing does, but is most often performed by writers on their own work. It is a circumstance rife with peril. Writers are least likely to see their own errors. Our eyes gloss over missing words and punctuations because our minds see what we meant to write. Unfortunately, it is not always possible or feasible to hire a professional proofreader or con someone else to read our work before hitting the send button.
The only solution is to do our best. Here are my top 15 tricks to help you find pesky errors in your work and someone else’s work: