#proofreading tips

(This is for your final draft. If you're looking for revision tips, please place an ask and I'd be happy to yap once again)

I have realized upon doing research for ways to improve my proofreading- that the tips I find aren't very good?? So here's MY take on proofreading tips.

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1. Change your font + font size

Makes your work more unfamiliar to you and your brain treats it as reading something new. You can pick up on small details better this way that you could've missed first.

2. Read it with inverted colors

You like reading dark mode? Read it in light mode and vice versa. This does the same as tip #1.

3. Text To Speech

One of the easiest ways to catch grammar mistakes. When a TTS bot says "hesaid" instead of "he said", there's no way you can miss that mistake.

I reccomend using 'Paper2Audio' which is a free website where you can upload a document and they'll read it to you. It doesn't have such a robotic tone and unlimited characters unlike most TTS. (I read ToS and do not believe they use your writing for any ai purposes [see Submissions by User/end of Limited License Grant] but as always, please check ToS yourself before using any service. I AM NOT PRO AI)

4. Leave your writing for (at minimum) a month.

If you’re working on a deadline, that’s fine, but making it unfamiliar to yourself is the most effective way to catch mistakes. This guide may not be as efficient without doing this step. Your writing style also changes over time, so it can be easier to find errors that way as well.

5. Annotate!

Treat it like a school paper!! I personally print out my work and take a pencil and some highlighters to it like a hacksaw.

Highlight literary devices, the elements of style, your favorite parts and your least favorite parts. Annotate suggestions, why you liked/disliked a scene, why you chose certain wording over others, or what you were trying to get across in a sentence.

6. Delete unnecessary words

Most writers have a habit of adding words into their writing that don’t need to be there. You may think these words make it sound smoother, but actually, they make it clunkier.

For example, “Just, that, suddenly, felt, like” are all words that don’t always need to be used. There are SO many more examples, I recommend looking them up!

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Hello again! So sorry to get back to this so late, I got really busy with finals right after your original ask.

You're totally right to feel frustrated by the editing process, it can feel BRUTAL at times. Once you figure out a way to approach it that works for you, it does get a lot better though. It's basically just the utilitary side of creative writing, but it can really help you to tune up and shape your work.

I have a three step editing routine for my work.

Reread (and mark-up)

Rewrite

Repeat

This might feel a little basic but it's the basic process that most people ultimately follow with editing their work. There are some additional tricks I use to keep it from feeling so boring and to make it easier to catch my mistakes.

Sleep on it

I cannot emphasize enough how much it helps to get a full nights sleep in between drafts. You don't even have to sleep (though it helps), just taking a significant amount of time away from a piece can give you a fresh perspective when you come back to it and it makes it so much easier to find mistakes or issues.

2. Use color

If you're able to, print your work out and mark it up with colored pens or pencils. This makes it visually easier to keep track of what you've already edited, which is SUPER helpful for longer works. If you're having a hard time reading back your work, you can also change the color of the text to red and switch it back to black as you go. This also makes it a lot easier to follow along.

3. Get a second opinion

Send your work to a friend! Get them to read it for you! It might feel a little vulnerable but they will be able to look at it from a different perspective than you and might notice things you won't.

Overall, editing is really just about dedicating your time and energy to your work. You've already made it exist, now you just have to make it functional. It can be kind of intimidating and it is a lot of work at times, but it is just as much a part of the writing process as the initial writing is. All writers have to edit their own work. In professional settings this is true as well. It's part of what makes the work yours.

Recently, I proofread five textbooks for a middle school science course for homeschool students. These books were not short! They were all very long and had me searching terms I hadn’t heard since my middle school days! Proofreading tough documents is part of the job, though. It doesn’t matter if you’re proofreading nonfiction, fiction, or complicated theological writing. Proofreaders know that…

*Post contains affiliate links. Some days, I stare at my to-do list and feel like I’m already behind before I’ve even had my coffee. There’s so much to do! Brushing up on my skills Proofreading projects Chip away at the course I’m taking Write a blog post Schedule LinkedIn But then there’s personal stuff too: Take the dog out Eat lunch Do the laundry And I might even need to use the…