Importance of Proof Reading To Become a Better Writer

What is proofreading?

Proofreading is the final and very important step before publishing writing which will be read by many readers.

Writing can include anything like an academic paper, research paper, an application, an article, a blog, etc. the main purpose of proofreading is to check and correct minor errors like punctuation or spelling mistakes.

Proofreading can be done by self or hired person based on your requirement.

Many people make mistakes in understanding proofreading and editing. In fact, both are different from each other and at the most, you can say that proofreading is a part of editing.

The editing of writing is mainly to carry out major changes like structure, content, or language in the document but proofreading is mainly to check minor mistakes.

Let us, first, understand several stages of the editing process –

Content editing – While you revise; you make major changes in the content and add, move, or delete sections. (Development or substantive editing)

Line editing – You might be changing sentences, phrases, words, and restructure paragraphs for better results. Changes in ideas, stories, or opinions may also include.

Copy editing – You might need to change some misfitting ideas or sentences to improve it or doing some changes in sentences to refine them for grammar, stylistic consistency will be involved in copy editing.

Proofreading – Checking minor errors like spelling and punctuation, etc. checking the formatting is also under proofreading.

In the case of a business document, a specific message is to be conveyed to potential customers hence it is very important that the message must be clear and correct.

If the message has some mistakes or leads to the confusion there will be a loss of customers.

For students, the document with perfection is going to fetch a good grade so it is essential for them to verify the authenticity and correctness before submitting it.

Simple proofreading can let them have some extra marks they wish for.

Here we will discuss all proofreading –

Where to start?

It is important to know that our readers must understand what we are presenting to them.

For this, the language must be reader-friendly, the flow of writing must be in line, and the opinions we put forward must be explained with support.

If you wish that your writing must be followed by many, you must relate to them and choose the subject.

Having done this, your writing should be close to them and they should feel it is theirs.

Thus the content with the least of no errors is critical and this can be achieved by proofreading.

While professional writers hire proofreaders, it is up to oneself to decide about yours.

It is fine even if you have someone to do it for you else you can do it with the help of online tools.

It is, nowadays, easy to do proofreading using one of the available tools online.

Purpose of proofreading

While there is no doubt that proofreading has to be done for making our document free of spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary mistakes, it must also be understood that the content is important.

When you are working hard on putting your ideas in front of the people and provide them some information or knowledge, small mistakes must not be a hurdle.

It is your hardship and you must get a proper reward for it.

Proofreading resumes, essays or cover letters are important to build your career.

In academic years the minor mistakes left could be considered as your negligence and may portray your wrong side.

Effective proofreading

When it comes to the high-quality professional documents, effective proofreading becomes an unavoidable step.

Sometimes while proofreading one may find a major mistake or can rework some sentences which can cause controversy.

Your communication with readers will greatly improve once there is effective proofreading is done for every document you prepare.

When a writer is writing, his focus is on penning down his thoughts so the mistakes may happen, but it is important to carefully correct them.

Professional proofreading

For those, who are publishing in bulk, professional proofreading is the best option.

As the professionals are doing this job round the clock, there is less chance of mistakes left.

They might suggest to you an additional idea which they may think of.

Nowadays digital assistance is also available through many tools that check spelling or sentence formation while reviewing documents.

Additionally, there are tools that check the grammar of the writing and also suggest what the correction is.

The software tools also suggest sentence formation correction, if any.

When there is professional proofreading the writer is assured of readable and clear content.

Professional proofreading service is offered by many people who work for it from home.

The best way to carry out professional proofreading is to imagine yourself as a reader and read your document like a third-party layman.

You will find if there are any mistakes that you can correct.

If you want your document to get published you must ensure it is free from grammar, structure, and punctuation mistakes.

What will happen if you take a lot of effort and hard work to build a document and it gets rejected due to minor errors?

No one will like it, right? So make it error-free and rest assured.

Importance of proofreading at various stages –

Scholar paper

Getting your scholarly paper published is a huge honor.

You do research weeks after weeks, refer to uncountable papers, analyze data, study your findings, and finally convert rough draft into accomplished paper.

It is an injustice to the hard work one has done if the paper does not get select for final publication.

The unlimited efforts would go to waste just because some silly mistakes are not attended to.

The editors will always be looking for reasons to reject a submission for some or the other reason.

Though the paper may be about data and analysis, the language used in it must be familiar, readable, and understanding for the editors.

The assistance of a professional proofreader is advisable for such important content.

The proofreading must be well planned and executed so as to make it successful.

The editing and the proofreading need much attention and if one is doing it stepwise it will benefit more.

Stepwise proofreading will reduce time against the proofreading of the whole long document.

Even sometimes an author can identify some important information he might have missed out on while writing.

Proofreading of Resumes

Another main application of proofreading is for the resumes or CV’s. CV’s are an essential aspect of a person seeking a job.

The CV’s will reflect your nature and they will also show the academic activities which employees will scan before they select you for interview.

Proofreading CV’s is important as getting a dream job basis on the resume will be a turning point in your life.

If you make some minor mistakes that are caught by the employer, your chance will get ruined.

If the applicant is applying through the mail, it is possible that there may be some error in drafting which might be observed by the company’s human resource person.

This can cost the applicant his job because organizations are very particular about such things and they scan the applications for perfection.

If you want to write a proper CV without error then you must be carefully carry out proofreading of your CV.

Efficient and effective proofreading can secure your dream job.

Proofreading for students

For students, proofreading comes across each step.

They have to confirm their work before presenting or submitting it because their progress depends on that work.

In an examination, a student cannot leave a paper without verifying what he/she has written.

This verification, in a way, is proofreading. That student is confirming his answer sheet is near to perfection so that he can get maximum marks.

Who knows the value of a single mark better than students? A single mark can give or deny you a good opportunity in life.

We have seen many students losing the desired seat due to one mark.

This is why proofreading at the end matters the most.

The examiners are experienced and they immediately understand the quality of the paper they are checking.

You can get the benefit if your paper is near to perfection as the examiner becomes confident of you and can allot a mark even if he finds a simple mistake.

This usually happens because the examiner understands that while writing in a hurry, this mistake would have gone unnoticed.

Proofreading in translation

Proofreading of a translated document means a lot as it is the conversion of the original document and needs to have the same balance in the meaning relevant to the original document.

The translated content should match correctly with the original so that the reader can better understand it.

Though proofreading is unable to tell the authenticity of the meaning, considering that the translation is done by an experienced person, it is always better to proofread it in terms of keeping the meaning intact.

Now we will see what techniques proofreaders apply to do it effectively – If one wants to perform as a proofreader then you must know how to do it effectively.

As a proofreader, you may make mistakes initially but the techniques will let you make an expert.

Here are some things you can keep in mind –

What to look at while proofreading?

One interesting thing about proofreading is that you need peaceful surroundings while you do it because the distractions may lead to some mistakes left out from you.

You need to be very attentive and cautious while you do proofreading.

You need a lot of concentration and focus which is critical for proofreading.

Any distractions like music or some background activities.

How to do better proofreading?

Another better way to do effective proofreading is to read out the content loudly as your views on content will be clearer.

Even if you have made some small mistake you will realize it and can correct it. Here are some more tips you can follow –

• Take frequent breaks during proofreading.

• Along with the spelling and punctuation corrections you need to improve the sentence formatting also. It can be favorable changes in font size, heading, marking points with bullets, etc.

• Do proper stepwise proofreading, one line at a time.

• Do not jump over the words or try to read and understand the full sentence. You are doing proofreading so concentrate on each word while reading.

• While doing this you need to be very focused and dedicated. You may need more time but it will be worth it.

• If you take some time out and have a fresh look at your work, you might find out some new mistakes and work out on them.

• Reading a hard copy of the content and understanding it again, is also a key point of the proper proofreading. You can also take help from someone equally capable of understanding the proofreading.

What we discussed above, undoubtedly underlines the importance of proofreading.

It not only is important for the content which is going to be published on a larger scale but also for the other stages in our life.

Proofreading simply is a final verification before the work we have done goes out to intended places.

If it is one of the thousands of contents going to be published, it is our responsibility to make it sensible and acceptable publicly.

Conclusion –

From the article, we understand that proofreading is the most important step along with writing the content.

It may be felt that it is small work of correcting spelling errors or punctuation mistakes but it adds value to your content professionally.

It is a common saying that nobody can do everything perfectly as human beings are prone to mistake.

But taking out time to correct the mistakes in our writing will help us immensely.

Each step of your life you write something whether it is an essay in school, exam papers in college, some professional document, or a research paper.

We need to be confident that what we have submitted to concerns is near to perfect. This will boost our chances to grab the opportunity we wish for.