People Who Can Prof Read a Letter

What this handout is about

This handout provides some tips and strategies for revising your writing. To requite yous a chance to practise proofreading, we take left seven errors (3 spelling errors, two punctuation errors, and ii grammatical errors) in the text of this handout. See if you can spot them!

Is editing the same affair as proofreading?

Not exactly. Although many people use the terms interchangeably, editing and proofreading are two different stages of the revision process. Both demand shut and careful reading, but they focus on different aspects of the writing and employ dissimilar techniques.

Some tips that apply to both editing and proofreading

• Get some distance from the text! It'southward hard to edit or proofread a paper that you've just finished writing—it'southward still to familiar, and you tend to skip over a lot of errors. Put the paper aside for a few hours, days, or weeks. Go for a run. Accept a trip to the beach. Articulate your head of what you've written so you can have a fresh look at the paper and meet what is really on the page. Meliorate all the same, give the paper to a friend—you lot tin can't get much more than distance than that. Someone who is reading the paper for the first fourth dimension, comes to it with completely fresh eyes.
• Determine which medium lets you proofread near carefully. Some people like to work right at the computer, while others similar to sit down dorsum with a printed re-create that they tin can mark up equally they read.
• Try changing the look of your document. Altering the size, spacing, color, or mode of the text may trick your brain into thinking it's seeing an unfamiliar document, and that tin can help you get a unlike perspective on what you've written.
• Discover a repose identify to work. Don't try to practice your proofreading in forepart of the Tv or while you're chugging abroad on the treadmill. Notice a identify where you can concentrate and avoid distractions.
• If possible, do your editing and proofreading in several short blocks of time. Your concentration may commencement to wane if you lot try to proofread the unabridged text at in one case.
• If you're brusk on time, you may wish to prioritize. Make sure that yous complete the most important editing and proofreading tasks.

Editing

Editing is what you begin doing equally soon as you finish your first draft. Y'all reread your draft to come across, for example, whether the newspaper is well-organized, the transitions betwixt paragraphs are polish, and your evidence actually backs up your statement. Y'all can edit on several levels:

Content

Have you done everything the consignment requires? Are the claims you lot brand authentic? If it is required to do so, does your paper make an argument? Is the statement consummate? Are all of your claims consistent? Have yous supported each indicate with adequate evidence? Is all of the data in your paper relevant to the consignment and/or your overall writing goal? (For boosted tips, see our handouts on understanding assignments and developing an statement.)

Overall structure

Does your paper accept an appropriate introduction and conclusion? Is your thesis clearly stated in your introduction? Is it clear how each paragraph in the torso of your newspaper is related to your thesis? Are the paragraphs arranged in a logical sequence? Have you made clear transitions between paragraphs? One way to cheque the structure of your newspaper is to brand a reverse outline of the newspaper afterwards you have written the first typhoon. (See our handouts on introductions, conclusions, thesis statements, and transitions.)

Construction within paragraphs

Does each paragraph take a articulate topic sentence? Does each paragraph stick to 1 principal idea? Are in that location whatever extraneous or missing sentences in any of your paragraphs? (See our handout on paragraph development.)

Clarity

Accept you lot divers whatsoever important terms that might be unclear to your reader? Is the significant of each sentence clear? (I fashion to answer this question is to read your paper ane sentence at a fourth dimension, starting at the finish and working backwards so that you will not unconsciously fill up in content from previous sentences.) Is it articulate what each pronoun (he, she, information technology, they, which, who, this, etc.) refers to? Have you chosen the proper words to express your ideas? Avoid using words you detect in the thesaurus that aren't office of your normal vocabulary; you may misuse them.

Fashion

Have you used an appropriate tone (formal, informal, persuasive, etc.)? Is your utilise of gendered linguistic communication (masculine and feminine pronouns similar "he" or "she," words similar "fire fighter" that comprise "man," and words that some people incorrectly presume apply to only i gender—for example, some people assume "nurse" must refer to a woman) advisable? Have you lot varied the length and structure of your sentences? Do you tends to utilize the passive phonation as well often? Does your writing contain a lot of unnecessary phrases like "there is," "in that location are," "due to the fact that," etc.? Do you lot repeat a strong word (for example, a brilliant main verb) unnecessarily? (For tips, see our handouts on way and gender-inclusive language.)

Citations

Have you accordingly cited quotes, paraphrases, and ideas y'all got from sources? Are your citations in the correct format? (Meet the UNC Libraries commendation tutorial for more data.)

As you edit at all of these levels, yous will commonly make significant revisions to the content and wording of your paper. Keep an eye out for patterns of error; knowing what kinds of bug you tend to accept will be helpful, specially if yous are editing a large document like a thesis or dissertation. Once yous have identified a blueprint, y'all can develop techniques for spotting and correcting future instances of that pattern. For instance, if you notice that you frequently discuss several distinct topics in each paragraph, yous tin become through your paper and underline the key words in each paragraph, then break the paragraphs upward so that each one focuses on but one chief idea.

Proofreading

Proofreading is the final stage of the editing process, focusing on surface errors such as misspellings and mistakes in grammar and punctuation. You should proofread only afterwards you have finished all of your other editing revisions.

Why proofread? It's the content that actually matters, right?

Content is important. But like information technology or not, the manner a newspaper looks affects the way others judge it. When you lot've worked hard to develop and nowadays your ideas, you don't want careless errors distracting your reader from what you accept to say. Information technology's worth paying attention to the details that help you to make a expert impression.

Most people devote only a few minutes to proofreading, hoping to take hold of any glaring errors that jump out from the page. But a quick and brief reading, especially after you've been working long and hard on a newspaper, usually misses a lot. Information technology's amend to work with a definite plan that helps you to search systematically for specific kinds of errors.

Sure, this takes a little actress fourth dimension, just it pays off in the cease. If you know that you have an constructive fashion to grab errors when the paper is near finished, you tin can worry less well-nigh editing while you lot are writing your first drafts. This makes the entire writing proccess more than efficient.

Try to proceed the editing and proofreading processes dissever. When you are editing an early on draft, you don't desire to be bothered with thinking about punctuation, grammer, and spelling. If your worrying virtually the spelling of a word or the placement of a comma, you're non focusing on the more than important job of developing and connecting ideas.

The proofreading process

You probably already use some of the strategies discussed below. Experiment with different tactics until you discover a system that works well for you. The important matter is to make the procedure systematic and focused so that you catch as many errors as possible in the to the lowest degree amount of time.

• Don't rely entirely on spelling checkers. These can exist useful tools merely they are far from foolproof. Spell checkers accept a limited dictionary, so some words that show up as misspelled may really just not be in their retentiveness. In improver, spell checkers will non catch misspellings that form another valid word. For case, if you type "your" instead of "you're," "to" instead of "likewise," or "there" instead of "their," the spell checker won't catch the error.

• Grammar checkers tin can exist even more problematic. These programs piece of work with a limited number of rules, so they can't identify every error and often make mistakes. They likewise fail to give thorough explanations to help you lot understand why a sentence should exist revised. Yous may want to use a grammar checker to help you identify potential run-on sentences or too-frequent employ of the passive voice, simply y'all need to be able to evaluate the feedback information technology provides.

• Proofread for but one kind of mistake at a time. If you endeavour to identify and revise too many things at in one case, you lot hazard losing focus, and your proofreading will be less effective. It's easier to take hold of grammer errors if you aren't checking punctuation and spelling at the same time. In improver, some of the techniques that piece of work well for spotting ane kind of mistake won't catch others.

• Read slow, and read every discussion. Try reading out loud, which forces you lot to say each give-and-take and also lets you hear how the words sound together. When you read silently or likewise speedily, you may skip over errors or brand unconscious corrections.

• Divide the text into individual sentences. This is another technique to aid you to read every judgement carefully. But printing the return cardinal after every period and then that every line begins a new sentence. Then read each sentence separately, looking for grammar, punctuation, or spelling errors. If you're working with a printed copy, try using an opaque object like a ruler or a piece of paper to isolate the line you're working on.

• Circle every punctuation marker. This forces you to expect at each one. Equally you circle, inquire yourself if the punctuation is correct.

• Read the paper backwards. This technique is helpful for checking spelling. Start with the concluding give-and-take on the final folio and piece of work your manner back to the beginning, reading each word separately. Because content, punctuation, and grammar won't make whatever sense, your focus will be entirely on the spelling of each discussion. Yous can also read backwards judgement past sentence to bank check grammar; this will assistance you avert becoming distracted by content issues.

• Proofreading is a learning process. You're not but looking for errors that you recognize; you lot're also learning to recognize and correct new errors. This is where handbooks and dictionaries come in. Keep the ones y'all find helpful shut at manus as y'all proofread.

• Ignorance may be bliss, but it won't brand you a amend proofreader. Y'all'll often find things that don't seem quite correct to you, but you may not be quite sure what'south wrong either. A word looks like it might be misspelled, but the spell checker didn't catch information technology. You think you need a comma betwixt ii words, but you're not sure why. Should you apply "that" instead of "which"? If yous're not sure about something, look it up.

• The proofreading process becomes more than efficient as you develop and practice a systematic strategy. You'll learn to place the specific areas of your own writing that need conscientious attention, and knowing that you have a sound method for finding errors will assistance you to focus more than on developing your ideas while you are drafting the paper.

Recollect you've got information technology?

Then give it a endeavour, if you haven't already! This handout contains seven errors our proofreader should accept caught: 3 spelling errors, ii punctuation errors, and ii grammatical errors. Effort to discover them, and then check a version of this page with the errors marked in red to encounter if you're a proofreading star.

Works consulted

Nosotros consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive listing of resources on the handout'south topic, and we encourage yous to do your own research to find additional publications. Please practise not employ this list as a model for the format of your ain reference listing, as it may not match the citation way yous are using. For guidance on formatting citations, delight see the UNC Libraries commendation tutorial. We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Especially for non-native speakers of English:

Ascher, Allen. 2006. Think About Editing: An ESL Guide for the Harbrace Handbooks. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Lane, Janet, and Ellen Lange. 2012. Writing Clearly: Grammer for Editing, 3rd ed. Boston: Heinle.

For everyone:

Einsohn, Amy. 2011. The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications, 3rd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lanham, Richard A. 2006. Revising Prose, 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman.

Tarshis, Barry. 1998. How to Be Your Ain Best Editor: The Toolkit for Everyone Who Writes. New York: Three Rivers Printing.

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This work is licensed nether a Artistic Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License.
You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Heart, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Source: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/

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