There is a famous quote “Writing is human and editing is divine” and in content writing, we often face the situation in which we have to proofread and edit our content. Proofreading is, in fact, emerging as a new field where people are earning a handsome amount of money so in this article we will find out what actually proofreading is and how you can effectively proofread any content. So let’s start!
What is proofreading?
Proofreading is basically considered as a careful consideration of mistakes before the publishing of any content. It is one of the last steps for any writing in which a person can more effectively correct mistakes such as spelling and punctuation mistakes as well as other formatting issues. It is quite different from editing because editing can involve major changes in content, language, or structure yet proofreading involves minor changes in content and structure.
Tips and techniques of proofreading
There are certain things that you should follow to achieve error-free content; some of them are the following:
Take a break
It is often recommended for the content writer to take a break of at least 24 hours so that they can effectively detect their mistakes. Sometimes due to workload, it becomes difficult for writers to focus completely on the content so after a short break they can detect and improve more mistakes as compared to the immediate evaluation of the first draft.
Read your content Backwards
The most repeated tip that everyone will give is to read the paragraphs and sentences in backward directions. This technique is known as cognitive dissonance and this technique can help you detect mistakes more effectively if you cannot wait for twenty-four hours. This technique is actually a time saver and assists you with finding overused words and other errors in sentences and paragraphs.
Carefully observe each punctuation mark
Punctuation mistakes can even change the meaning of a sentence and can make it difficult for readers to understand the message. So any proofreader needs to take a pause on each mark finding out the mistakes in contractions, apostrophes, and capitalization mistakes in sentences.
Verify spellings
Verification of spellings is very important, for example if you are not sure about the correct spelling of any company or name of a person this can seriously damage your reputation. Similarly, some people make mistakes even in the titles or subtitles of the content so this leaves a very bad impression for readers. Thus verify every spelling to avoid any problem. Another important thing about spelling verification is that you should not only rely on manual spelling checkers because sometimes you can correct the spellings manually though that can completely change the context of your content.
Show the content to your friend before publishing
Before publishing the final draft you can consult with your friend who is quite familiar with content writing. This can be very helpful for improving your mistakes and learning new things. Be open-minded!
Proofreading is the last stage of any content writing work so after reading this article you should now be able to improve different areas of your writing. So, keep writing new content and keep learning new things from my translation and article writing blog.