Proofreading is both an art and a science. It involves having a keen eye for detail and the ability to find and fix every mistake, error, and inconsistency in a text. Such a skill requires concentration, meticulousness, and a good dose of common sense. Basic proofreading techniques are designed to help you correct blunders consistently and efficiently.
As a proofreader, you are often the last line of defense prior to publishing. Due to the critical nature of the task and importance of finding and addressing every problem, you must conduct your work in a professional manner. This means creating and using a process that involves initial checks, at least two complete read-throughs, and final checks. This is all done with multiple tools like grammar and spell checkers.
The proofreading process
Proofreading, like any other task, works best as a defined process. Rather than using guesswork or creating reminders for yourself, it is much better to establish a process and stick to it.
A general proofreading process is listed below, although over time you will want to personalize it for yourself.
It is important to note that this process covers business-centric proofreading, which is usually a combination of proofreading; copyediting; and sometimes line editing. If you are hired as a proofreader by a publication company, you will follow a different process that will be defined for you.
Additionally, because the vast majority of content today is written in either Google Docs or Microsoft Word, the process reflects that fact and will refer to those tools when necessary.
Step 1: The basics
The first step in proofreading any file is to open it and change the settings from Editing to Suggesting (Google Docs) or enable Track Changes (Word). The client has the final say when it comes to accepting your changes. It is their document after all. Suggesting allows you to still make changes, but they are tracked on screen. The client can then go back and accept or reject them as they see fit.
Next, run the application’s spell and grammar checker and start Grammarly (if you have it). Then go through the document and fix the basic errors.
Tools like spell check and Grammarly are good at pointing out the most egregious of errors (basic misspellings and the like). But be warned—they’re often wrong as much as they’re right. Nevertheless, they can be helpful as a second set of eyes to catch easy fixes.
You can start searching for extra spaces in the document as well. This is as simple as bringing up the search command and pressing the Space bar twice. Doing so will highlight any areas where an unnecessary space can be found. Looking for additional spaces is good to take as a separate, intentional action because spotting something as small as an extra space can be hard to do with your eyes alone.
It’s important to start with these basic proofreading techniques for at least two reasons. First, they allow you to quickly find and address the easiest errors to get them out of the way. This gives you time to find other, more challenging problems. Second, they put you in a “proofreader” mindset and help ease you into the more difficult tasks ahead.
Step 2: The first read-through
After you’ve scanned through the document and addressed any simple mistakes, start reading the bulk of the text. Read at a slow pace during the first read-through. Take time to consider changing anything that might seem a bit off or questionable.
Now you can look up any words you’re unsure about to verify spelling. Check any grammar or syntax that looks suspicious. Be on the lookout for unclear or poorly worded phrases or sentences. Work to improve the word choice in them as well as their flow. Simply put, search for anything that needs correction or could be enhanced.
During the first read-through, your goal should be to catch and correct as many mistakes as possible while still focusing on efficiency. You don’t need to keep track of metrics, but roughly speaking, try to find 80–90 percent of all the errors.
Once you’ve gone through the document the first time, you might want to take a break. If a quick turnaround is needed, take two to three minutes to reset your eyes and mind. Look at a faraway object like a tree in your yard or a picture on the opposite wall of your office. If you have more time, come back to the document after a few hours or even days. You should aim to “forget” what you just read so you can come back to the text refreshed.
Step 3: The second read-through
After you’ve taken a break, begin the second read-through. There are two different actions you will want to take this time. The first is to switch views to see what your changes will look like if they are accepted. You can do this via the Tools > Review suggested edits feature (Google Docs) or by selecting No Markup from the drop-down list next to the Track Changes button (Word). (Note: In Google, the dialog box that opens has a drop-down list. Select the Accept All Changes setting).
The second action is to read the document from the bottom up. You can choose to do this at the sentence or paragraph level. Whichever method you choose, reread the entire document this way, starting at the end of the last page and finishing at the beginning of the first one.
In the second (backward) read-through, you are searching for the remaining 10–20 percent of the mistakes. It’s the small errors you’re after now—an extra comma, inconsistent capitalization use and spellings, etc.
The reason for reading the document backward is to break up the flow of the text. Often your brain will project what it expects to comprehend onto the page rather than relate to you what’s actually on it. Reading backward breaks your brain’s bad habits and helps you find more mistakes.
It’s also important to look at any of your suggested changes that might have introduced new errors in the text. Sometimes, for instance, you might delete a word but accidentally remove the space between that word and the next one. Or you may realize that an earlier change you made isn’t actually needed.
To summarize up to this point, the basic proofreading techniques of performing initial checks and conducting the first read-through are where you want to find the majority of the errors in a given text. The second read-through, done from the bottom up, involves finding the remaining flaws that went unnoticed (or were introduced) the first time.
Once the second read-through is complete, you can be reasonably certain that you’ve found and addressed every mistake. But there is still a little more work to be done.
Step 4: Final checks
There are a variety of final checks that you could perform on any document. This is where you will specifically focus on anything else that needs attention, depending on the type of content. For example, you may need to review all the header text and verify that everything is capitalized that needs to be. Or you might need to make sure that the section headers are consistent with one another.
You can also run the spell and grammar checkers and review any Grammarly suggestions one more time. This helps to ensure that any “mistakes” brought to your attention do not need to be corrected.
Less commonly, you could have table or image captions that need a different type of review. You might also need to correct any spacing or margin problems.
When you are satisfied with any final checks, the job is done. You can return the document to its owner.
Summing it up: Basic proofreading techniques
Proofreading is a task best performed systematically. It is important to define your proofreading process and stick to it. You should also utilize the basic proofreading techniques, include completing initial error checks, conducting multiple read-throughs of the text, using the necessary tools, and performing final checks.
By adhering to a process that includes these basic proofreading techniques, you can be sure that you are consistently finding and addressing every mistake, error, or blunder in a text.