Proofreading

Proofreading is a learning process. You’re not just looking for errors that you recognize; you’re also learning to recognize and correct new errors. This is where handbooks and dictionaries come in. Keep the ones you find helpful close at hand as you proofread.

• 
  Ignorance may be bliss, but it won’t make you a better proofreader. You’ll often find things that don’t seem quite right to you, but you may not be quite sure what’s wrong either. A word looks like it might be misspelled, but the spell checker didn’t catch it. You think you need a comma between two words, but you’re not sure why. Should you use “that” instead of “which”? If you’re not sure about something, look it up.
  

• 
  The proofreading process becomes more efficient as you develop and practice a systematic strategy. You’ll learn to identify the specific areas of your own writing that need careful attention, and knowing that you have a sound method for finding errors will help you to focus more on developing your ideas while you are drafting the paper.
  

Proofreading is an important skill for any writer. Whether you are a researcher or an academic, writing and publishing are important parts of your career. Before you submit any article for publication, you must proofread it thoroughly. How is proofreading done? In this article, we will review the key parts of proofreading, discuss how it differs from other types of editing, and give you some tips on ways to effectively proofread your own papers. We will focus on English proofreading, but you can apply these tips to proofreading in another language as well.
Proofreading is when you carefully check a document for errors such as basic grammar, style and consistency before it is published or submitted for publication. Proofreading focuses specifically on “minor” errors and consistency rather than major errors or content suggestions. Items that a proofreader should review include proper spelling, capitalization, spacing between words, punctuation, and formatting. For writers who are submitting an article to a publisher that requires a specific citation format (APA, Chicago, etc.), the step of proofreading is when you check whether the formatting in your document adheres to the demands of the citation style. While most of us think of “citation style” as only applying to references, in fact, citation style guides also specify how section headings and table or figure headings should look.
Professional proofreaders develop their own style and process for effectively proofreading documents over time. This process can vary depending on the type of document. Technical documents that have formulas or complex figures may require a proofreader to pay special attention to punctuation or capitalization. For example, while in English, there is generally a space between a word and a parenthesis, in chemical formulas, there is no space.
Many proofreaders who offer professional proofreading services find it most effective to begin their work by reviewing different sections at a time. For example, a proofreader may begin by reviewing all of the heading and chapter titles to ensure they are consistent and correct. Next, the proofreader may then go back through the document focusing on any tables or figures. It is only at the end that a proofreader will read through the entire document to see if there are any problems or errors that they missed the first few times.
Tips for Proofreading Effectively
While each proofreader has their own methodology, all proofreaders should keep several things in mind. The following are some tips from experienced proofreaders that can help make the job easier. The first five tips are general recommendations for anyone who is faced with the task of proofreading, particularly proofreading their own work. The second five tips presume that you are using a word processing program such as Microsoft Word to perform the task of English proofreading.