Monday, December 29, 2008

How to Make Proofreading Effective

Till mid-1990’s, many people thought proofreading and editing are same and used these words interchangeable. Proofreading means going through the content and making it effective by making necessary corrections related to grammar, spellings, and typos etc. Proof reading is vital for an error free document.

STEPS FOR MAKING PROOFREADING EFFECTIVE
The majority of the people devote only a few minutes for the correction of the content, hoping to detect all the glaring errors that are present in the document. But a quick and crispy reading can prevent you from finding the errors in the document. The following are few steps for making proofreading effective.

Proofreading Should Be Done More Than Two Times:
By reading once, the proofreader can not detect all errors in the content. Proofreading should be done for more than two times, because all the errors can not be found in first two readings. Professional proofreaders do proofreading as many as ten times in different angles.

Don’t Rely On Handy Tools:
Proofreading with handy tools may not find all the errors in the content and sometimes even add more errors. Because handy tools work with limited number of rules with which they can’t identify every error giving a chance for mistakes. For an instance, spell checkers can not catch misspellings that form another meaningful word.

Read slowly:
The content of writing should be read slowly and carefully to determine whether the message that the writer wants to convey is delivered correctly or not. If possible, read out loudly that enables you to hear the word that enables you to be at the readers end. If you read silently or quickly, there is a chance to skip over the errors or make unconscious corrections.

Better to do proofreading through printed paper:
Some proofreaders do proofreading on the computer only and some has a habit of proofreading through printed paper. Proofreading on printed paper is more effective than any other form. Proofreading on paper can easily find the errors in spellings, vocabulary, grammar and punctuations.

It is always better to plan or define the proofreading process that helps in systematic and effective proofreading. Proofreading is not an inherent ability but it is an acquired skill. It is unquestionable that the quality of the content is very much dependant on the quality of the proof reading.

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