No one likes to see their work published with errors in it. And absolutely no one likes to send written material to their boss that contains mistakes! But how can you avoid doing just this? The answer is to carefully proofread your work.
Here’s how.
1. Be realistic
The first point to realise is that it is near-impossible to always produce written work that is error-free. The aim might be to do so – but that aim is very rarely ever achieved.
I’ve worked in magazine publishing where prior to publication, each article was read by four professionals. The journalist very carefully checked their work, the editor then read it (and often made corrections and changes) and the work then went to a sub-editor. Finally, because in that magazine everyone saw it as their duty to contribute to a product having as few mistakes as humanly possible, the layout artist would read each article as she was working with it.
And you know what? Simple mistakes were still published!
So be realistic: no matter how hard you try, it’s very likely that some mistakes will get through. If you don’t keep this point in mind, it’s likely that you’ll spend a lot of the rest of your life with your head in your hands!
So remember: you can never be perfect.
2. Don’t rush
By far the majority of written errors occur when the writer is rushing. By this I don’t necessarily mean that the writer is working quickly; there will be many times when a writer’s creative juices are flowing and he or she is typing as fast as they can. What I mean by ‘rushing’ is that the work is submitted as soon as it is finished.
This is simply a dumb idea. You will be absolutely guaranteed that errors will be included if you write the document, give it a check (even a detailed check) and then submit it. You simply must get away from the piece of writing for sufficient time that you’ve forgotten which word follows which!
The shortest time I ever give myself to ‘get away from it’ is overnight. That’s pretty achievable in most jobs: you can finish it at 5pm, sleep on it, then review it one final time at 9am the next day. I’ve heard people say their jobs don’t permit that; I just figure that they’re not very good at organising themselves – or their boss is a martinet and they should consider going to work for someone else!
If you have the luxury of not reviewing your document for a week, that’s even better. An overnight break will allow you to identify typographical and spelling errors (ones the spell-check has permitted) but a break of a week will allow you to see structural and expression problems.
Always give yourself a break before doing the final proofread.
3. Reading aloud
Reading your material out loud is an excellent way of spotting errors. However, it’s important to know that you can do it in three different ways.
When they read, all good readers assimilate groups of words rather than individual words. That is, they do not read one word at a time. Therefore, the first approach to ‘reading out loud’ is to do so in your head. That is, rather than reading groups of words, you deliberately recognise each word as a separate entity. As you read each word, you say it silently in your mind. I find this approach excellent in identifying typographical and spelling errors.
The next level is to read the words out loud, but addressing only yourself. You can do it quietly, but you must actually voice the words. Taking this approach is excellent in getting a feel for the rhythm and cadence of your language – exposing awkward phrasing, for example.
The final ‘reading aloud’ approach is to read your work to someone else. This is extremely valuable as you can watch how well your writing works – not only your phrasing, but also your structure, arguments, logic, descriptions and tone. In fact, often you’ll find that you stop yourself and say, “Oh that’s no good is it!” – despite the fact that you are reading what you’ve silently read perhaps a dozen times!
4. Print it out
I don’t know why this works but it does: make sure you print out a copy of your work and read the paper version.
Perhaps it’s the way that the black print on white paper appears, perhaps it’s just the different feel or even the angle of your head when you read a hard-copy version, but whatever it is, you will invariably find errors in a print-out that you missed on the screen.
5. Get others to read it
Finally, get other people to read your work. Don’t be embarrassed – even the best writers want others to read their work for mistakes. However, by the same token, don’t waste the time of other people – before giving it to them, make sure that the piece of work is not full of errors!
Conclusion
Need to submit work that is error-free?
First, recognise that is not going to occur with everything you produce; second, step away from your work before making a final check; third, read the work out loud on at least one of the three levels; fourth, print it out and read it; and finally, make sure someone else also checks it.
Filed under: Articles on writing
