How To Proofread Your Academic Writing Effectively

Proofreading is an important task for any writer, but for academic students the task is also a learning experience. Upon completing your written assignment the proofreading process helps improve overall quality of the content. This is where you make your paper reader-friendly and make necessary changes. Understanding how to improve your content includes learning practical steps to take when proofreading your content. The following steps can help you get started.

• Have revisions completed before you start proofreading. This means sentence and paragraph development should be finished. Ideas and concepts should be in an organized manner and appear on the page where you want them.
• Take a break from your text before proofreading. You may want to wait a few minutes or a few days before you begin. This helps catch mistakes and errors easily.
• Review sentences and word placement. Omit words not needed before you begin checking for mistakes. Unnecessary words that make the sentence too lengthy or difficult to read should be eliminated.
• Consider reviewing common mistakes to look for, especially those your instructor or professor will look for. It helps to have a list of mistakes you commonly make or things you want to be sure to catch.
• Print your content out on paper. This makes the proofreading easier on the eyes and you can mark on the page mistakes that need to be changed.
• Take a moment to read your content out loud. This helps you learn from another perspective about changes that are needed. This helps catch run-on sentences and other problems you may miss if you read silently.
• Take your time looking for mistakes. You can consider using different techniques such as reading each sentence backwards or reading from start to finish. You can utilize your computer’s search function to find words that may be spelled correctly but misused in the sentence, such as its and it’s.
• Let spell check help. Use the feature on your computer to find misspelled words. Keep in mind your computer could look over words that are spelled correctly, but it could be a typo such as using there instead of their or they’re. Highlight mistakes as you come across them and then go back and make your corrections. It is recommended to proofread your paper more than once to ensure mistakes are caught throughout the text.