Once you have written your piece, you need to proofread it. Proofreading your work might seem easy, but it is certainly not; it is a vital step in the writing process, which is tedious and time-consuming.
The details and the focus required to reassess your document is as challenging as it is essential. Proofreading a document is not just for correcting grammatical mistakes; it has more responsibilities to its JD. A proofreader’s job is to make the sentences short and easy to elevate the reading experience.
A document with too many errors makes the reader lose focus from the message of the written piece; the same is the case with a copy containing difficult words.
Well, we have some proofreading tricks up our sleeves that we are about to disclose to make your life easy. These writing tips will surely help the writer in you.
First, write, then proofread
The practice of proofreading while writing is quite common. However, we advise leaving the proofreading for the end.
Writing is a creative process that requires a free flow of thoughts; proofreading at the time of writing will hinder the flow, which will slow down your writing process.
The reason behind this is that writing and editing are quite the opposite processes; in one, you let your creative juices flow and let the ideas sink in, but in the other, you trim down excess information. Only the most relevant and precise sentences are spared, while others are mercilessly removed.
It won’t be wrong to say you write using your head and edit using your brain.
Edit The Piece After Taking A Break
If you have written the document, the best practice is to take a break of 24 hours before proofreading it. When you are writing a piece, you are very close to it, and the chances are that you might not find any flaw in it.
Editing right after you are done writing will allow blunders to skip your eyes because every phrase will appear flawless to you. When you are the author, your heart is quite close to the content, making it difficult to focus as a proofreader.
Taking a gap between both processes will help your mind to function as a proofreader.
Get Yourself A Hard Copy
It is advised by the old-timers to get a print of your document and then give it a read because it’s easier to point out mistakes on paper than on a screen.
Furthermore, a hard copy allows you to proofread the document due to its mobility quickly; you can edit the form anywhere you please.
Read Out Loud and Slowly
When reviewing your written text, go through the entire paragraphs slowly and read them aloud. There is a good chance of correcting any writing error if you listen to what you have written. By reading the text aloud, you can identify the correctness of a sentence structure more effectively than the written form.
Also, you can take it a step further and use Google’s text-to-voice function. Hearing another source reading out to you will help you catch grammatical errors with more efficiency.
Never Trust Spellcheck Blindly
While spellchecker has its place, its use has limits. Using it is a good practice, but blindly relying on it isn’t. They can help you correct the spellings, but for every other thing, they are pretty useless.
The spell checker will only notify if there is any word misspelled, which means if you write bat instead of a bath, the spell checker will skip right through it.
Edit From The Reader’s Perspective
Like we have mentioned earlier, editing a copy also ensures that the reading experience must be smooth. A reader should be focused on the text’s message and not be entangled in the complexity of the sentences.
Always keep the reader in mind while reviewing a document. Putting yourself in the audience’s shoes will make you edit the form better. Here are some writing tips that help create hooking content:
- Never use complex jargon; explain to them if you have to use one or two.
- Set the tone of the blog according to the niche you’re writing.
- Complicated terminologies should be replaced with easy to understand words.
- Should be reviewed for punctuation and sentence structure.
Identifying the audience and then editing the document will give you an entirely new aspect. You will look at the copy from a different angle that will enable you to proofread the entire content successfully.
Give It To Someone Else
Having an extra pair of eyes is always better for proofreading business; after all, you need to have a devil’s advocate that can challenge your sense of creativity.
Written content gets published on multiple digital mediums; typos can harm an organization’s reputation. So, it is better to get the content reviewed by as many copywriters as possible. The benefit of using an extra pair of eyes is that you will have an extra flare of creativity in your copy that will add to the worth and quality of your content marketing.
Moreover, if you are not a professional copywriter, we highly recommend hiring a competent writer if the budget allows. Many online platforms are offering such services as well.
Use Softwares
The digital revolution has helped content creators a lot by introducing different apps and software that have eased digital content producers’ lives.
One such revolutionary online service is Grammarly that has helped copywriters and every other being who aspires to be a writer. You can scan your work for grammatical, spelling, and syntax errors.
However, magic remains in the pen of the writer. All this software can only help you with grammar and other errors, but if you lack the spark of creativity, there is no software out there to compensate for that.
Change Your View
As discussed above, changing the medium on which the content is being viewed can immensely affect proofreading efficiency.
Adjust according to your preference; choose easily readable fonts, and pick a nice quiet place where you can proofread in peace.
Conclusion
The content is the king, but only the error-free one!
No other medium can replace the power of words. The effectiveness of emotion was always on top and will always remain on top. But for maintaining superiority over others, it is a must that the copy is error-proof.
Always remember this writing tip: proofreading after publishing the content is useless!
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