How to proofread for beginners
Proofreading sounds like a great job, doesn’t it? Sit back, relax, read some content, make a couple of suggestions along the way, and be praised for adding the finishing touches to someone else’s hard work. But you’d be mistaken if you think that proofreading isn’t a major task with huge pitfalls if you get it wrong – being the person who checks the plane before take-off is arguably more important than sitting in the pilot’s seat. So, what does proofreading really involve?
Checking for unscrupulous content theft
Nothing will hinder the efforts of the content more than to be pigeonholed as stolen ideas from other more authoritative sources. And that’s just in print. Stolen content that appears on a website can lead to the website losing all ranking if discovered, and Google has some pretty sensitive algorithms set up specifically to ensure that any stolen sentences, paragraphs, or complete pages are removed. You need plagiarism software. Checking for content that has been uprooted and rehomed should form the first wave of your attack. Once you have established that all of the content is original, you can continue with your proofreading mission.
A bag of tricks
Running a spellcheck is essential. But certain things can slip through the net where even the most sophisticated spell checkers are accidentally outsmarted by spelling mistakes or typos that may not be picked up if they appear to be names or if the sentence actually makes sense despite an incorrect word being used. Try to proofread at a time of day when you are most ‘awake’ – for me, this is definitely not at 7AM on a Monday, for example. If you do find an error that hasn’t been picked up by the spellchecker, don’t assume that one simple correction may have dealt with the whole problem – if the word Paris has been typed as Laris, which is capitalised and looks like a name and may not get picked up by a spellchecker, press Ctrl + F on your keyboard and type in Laris to scan the document for further instances of the incorrect spelling.
And lastly, how’s your reading voice?… If you really want to get the most of your proofreading task, you’re going to need to read the piece out loud. If you’ve ever heard of metrical feet (where a precise arrangement of short and long syllables create rhythm and flow), you’ll know that there’s a reason certain song lyrics stick in our heads. Reading things out loud can help to spot poorly structured sentences that need reordering.
