All of us write a big essay or report at some point in our lives. Yet there will be mistakes in our work even if we are brilliant writers with a perfect command of our language. Proofreading is the process of elimination - removing all the errors and just leaving perfect prose.

It is understandable that we are not able to see our own mistakes easily, especially when we have been working on the same document over and over again. As we are the author of our work, our brain tends to fill in the gaps between missing information making us less aware of any obvious mistakes during writing. Most of us would not want to worry about it because we can hire an expert proofreading service to do the hard work for us.

Proofread while you work

Proofreading Tips and Tricks is aimed to help us overcome our mistakes and to tackle even the most obscure errors. Although proofreading is very effective, it still helps if you are able to spot the obvious mistakes early on so that you can make adjustments to your draft, and not leave all the corrections until the final version for the expert Proof-reader. There is a danger that you might find yourself doing too many changes at the end and struggle to retain the original theme or direction of your document. One should also give your proof-reader a good amount of time to do the work because people tend to overlook mistakes when rushed.

Proofreading Tips and Tricks

Here are some proofreading tips and tricks on how to proofread your own work before hiring an expert proof-reader. Firstly, always give ample time for proofreading. You should always take a break from your work for an hour or two before proofreading it. It gives you room to breathe and lets your mind forget about the work to be done. When you come back to it, you will have a fresh set of eyes to look at your own work. You will be surprised at how many more errors you will find when you take this approach.

Print a Physical Copy

Secondly, always proofread from a printed physical copy of your work. Even the expert proofreading services print out the text in physical copy to ensure they spot the most obscure mistakes. Yes, it can be argued that this is not very environmental friendly, but it will have a huge impact on the effectiveness of the proofreading. And guess what? You can always recycle the paper.

Use the Spellchecker

Thirdly, always use the spell check function to check that your spelling is correct. Most of the modern writing software will have a reasonable spell checker. However, do note that the language setting should always be set correctly according to your preference, e.g. English (UK) or English (US). You should also be aware that not all the grammatical corrections suggested by the software are right. Ask a friend if you are in doubt on a particular sentence that is being highlighted as a grammatical mistake. A second opinion always helps.

Proofread Everything

Finally for our proofreading tips and tricks, you should never overlook to proof read other parts of the work other than the body. Proofreading of the table of content, citations, footnotes, appendices, bibliographies, headers, footers, quotations, table of figures, index, page number, and section numbers are equally important to produce a professional piece of work. Hopefully, this will help you proofread like a pro.