Month: November 2019

Proofreading is done after all the editing process, and this is the last stage before your work will be printed out. You will focus on finding any overlooked misspellings and typographic errors, consistency, grammar, and other inserts.

The Proofreading Process

You may use the proofreading process below to help you with your work

Don’t Rely Entirely On Spelling Checkers

In the age of technology, you can easily use a spelling checker online, but don’t solely rely on it, what they check are only limited in their dictionary. And sometimes, it will not accurately catch your errors.

Grammar Checkers Can Be Even More Problematic

This will annoy you more than you expected, they will sometimes ask you to revise your sentence, but they won’t give you a thorough explanation of why you should do that. They can’t catch every error, and they sometimes make mistakes.

You can use an online grammar checker to help you see the errors and edit it yourself.

Proofread

If you are proofreading the punctuation, focus only on the punctuation. You will lose your focus if you check the punctuation and spelling at the same time, you tend to make more mistakes. If you are done in one task, proofread it all over again for another kind of error.

Read Slowly And Read Every Word

Do not skim over your work. Read it slowly and read every word. Doing this will help you notice every detail and mistakes.

Read each sentence aloud, and it will help you catch mistakes that you can’t visually see.

Separate The Text Into Individual Sentences

Break-in between sentences and read it separately, and aloud, it will give you a new perspective on your work. It will help you catch grammar errors, punctuation, or spelling.

Circle Every Punctuation Mark

Every time you do this, ask yourself if it is the correct punctuation use in that specific sentence

Read The Paper Backward

This technique will help you get your attention. Your mind is already following the structure if you read it from the beginning, and you often miss some mistakes.

By reading it backward, it slows you down, and your brain stops from misleading you.

Proofreading Is A Learning Process

In proofreading, you are not just looking for mistakes, but also, you are learning in the process to avoid similar errors in the future. Proofreading is not a one-time read-only, you will need to read it again and again until no mistakes are seen, and your work is in its correct format.

Don’t Make Ignorance As An Excuse

There are confusing words in the sentence, but the spelling or grammar checkers didn’t catch them. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t ignore it, instead, look it up yourself. It will help you in the future, and it will make you better in proofreading.

Have A Systematic Strategy

When you are proofreading your work often, you will find out the areas where you usually make a mistake and needed close attention. By proofreading it regularly, it will help you evolve your idea while correcting your work.

Always remember, the more you write, the more you edit, the more you proofread, the more you learn!

 

 

 

Most people are interchanging editing and proofreading as two points of the revision process. But, they are not the same thing, although both required close and careful reading, but they emphasized different angles of the writing process and utilized a different approach.

Editing

Editing is a challenging job after you finished your draft, you have to edit it. Editing lets you see whether your paper is compelling if there’s a smooth transition between paragraphs, and if your argument backs up with the evidence that you have. You have to reread your drafts for you see those things.

Levels on what you can edit:

Contents

Content editing, as the name suggested, means checking the content of your work. You will go into the contents for factual errors, inconsistencies, and contradictions. If you are working for a fictional paper, in content editing, you need to check the plot, character, or dialogue. Content editing lets you check whether if the theme adequately developed. Content editing is subjective than other forms of editing; it involves a lot of thought and decision-making.

Content editing assesses the content in detail.

Overall Structure

Structural editing is not about revising your work, but it involves making structural changes.

In structural editing, your goal as the editor is to check out the story’s overall flow, paying attention to the plot, dialogue, descriptions, characterizations, and any other unique components to the story or writing, before going into details like spelling and grammar.

Structure Within Paragraphs

A paragraph is a distinct section of a piece of writing, a group of sentences that all relate to one main idea or topic. Topic sentence, unity, coherence, and adequate development; these are the four main characteristics your paragraph should have for it to be effective.

A topic sentence is one of the most effective ways to attain clarity and unity in one’s writing.

Unity is essential because it assists the readers in following along with your ideas. One paragraph only deals with one topic; when a paragraph is written, your readers will expect a new topic.

When you switch main ideas or topics within a paragraph, it often confuses. You, as a writer, should display how the concepts involved in a paragraph are connected to the main topic.

Adequate Development means when the paragraph describes, defines, and upholds the topic sentence.

Clarity

Editing for clarity, your goal is having your sentence one interpretation only. To ensure your sentences are clear, you should use specific words, use active voice, simplify tenses, use Standard English, replace vague pronouns, avoid using the helping verbs (would, should, and could), and check for any misplaced modifiers.

Style

The style in writing can be characterized as the way a writer writes. It can also describe as the author’s “voice” that readers listen to while reading. In style editing, it will let you see if you use correct capitalization, punctuations, the proper usage of apostrophes, and the words that are easily confused.

Citations

Citation and Reference editing are essential to a paper, especially if you are writing an academic paper. References validate the information you write in your paper; proper citations also complete the paper’s progress.

It is vital to give proper credit to your sources – footnotes, endnotes, reference lists, and separate citing page.