When using the three-read system of proofreading, which of the following do you check for first?

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Having the job of proofreading a long, important document can be daunting. With a deadline in the diary and the looming fear that you no longer know how to spell anything, proofreading is often met with a panicked expression. However, once you’ve got the right tools and know-how you’ll be able to breeze through the piles of documents without ever doubting how to spell “committee” again (two m’s, two t’s, and two e’s!).

1. Know the difference between editing and proofreading

Editing is the process of checking the content of the text to ensure that ideas are expressed clearly and logically. Editing is done after the first draft is finished. Proofreading involves checking text in finer detail after the editing stage. You’ll be on the lookout for errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and format.

2. Know your house style

Are there particular bullet points that your organisation uses? What format does your organisation use for dates? These are the details you probably don’t think about normally, but you should be thinking about now. There are some general rules, such as numbers zero to nine are spelt out whilst numbers from 10 and up are generally written in numerals.

If you don’t have a house style, create one. If you’re looking for inspiration, take a look at a published one such as The Economist’s which is available online.

3. Give yourself time

Distractions and rushing are two of a proofreader’s worst enemies. If a quiet space is available for you to use, then do your proofreading there. Alternatively tell your colleagues that you can’t be disturbed – you could even turn your out of office on!

Give yourself enough time to read the document over at least three times. You’ll also need to factor in breaks as your eyes will get tired and you may sometimes lose concentration.

4. Go in with a system

It’s always best to approach proofreading with a strategy. Think about what you need to do; you need to check readability, errors, and layout. Split these into different tasks and arrange in an order that suits you. Some people like to check readability, then look for errors, and then check the format and layout.

The first time you read the document through ignore spelling mistakes and layout, just focus on the readability. Take a short break. Now read it all the way through again and look for errors. Take another break. Finally, go over the layout.

5. Print it out

Proofreading on a screen is very difficult, so print it off and get your highlighters at the ready. Setting the paragraph spacing to 1.5 or double can also make proofreading easier, and it gives you plenty of room to jot down notes and amendments.

If you’re really organised, you could assign a different highlighter colour to each task; yellow for readability, green for errors, and pink for layout. This will make things much easier when it comes to making changes! Once you’re done, keep a copy of your proofread document for future reference.

Want to improve your proofreading skills even more? Take a look at our Proofreading course, or take a look at our other courses here. 

Proofreading is an important skill for any writer. Whether you are a researcher or an academic, writing and publishing are important parts of your career. Before you submit any article for publication, you must proofread it thoroughly. How is proofreading done? In this article, we will review the key parts of proofreading, discuss how it differs from other types of editing, and give you some tips on ways to effectively proofread your own papers. We will focus on English proofreading, but you can apply these tips to proofreading in another language as well.

What is Proofreading?
Proofreading is when you carefully check a document for errors such as basic grammar, style and consistency before it is published or submitted for publication. Proofreading focuses specifically on “minor” errors and consistency rather than major errors or content suggestions. Items that a proofreader should review include proper spelling, capitalization, spacing between words, punctuation, and formatting. For writers who are submitting an article to a publisher that requires a specific citation format (APA, Chicago, etc.), the step of proofreading is when you check whether the formatting in your document adheres to the demands of the citation style. While most of us think of “citation style” as only applying to references, in fact, citation style guides also specify how section headings and table or figure headings should look.

How do you Proofread Documents? Professional proofreaders develop their own style and process for effectively proofreading documents over time. This process can vary depending on the type of document. Technical documents that have formulas or complex figures may require a proofreader to pay special attention to punctuation or capitalization. For example, while in English, there is generally a space between a word and a parenthesis, in chemical formulas, there is no space.

Many proofreaders who offer professional proofreading services find it most effective to begin their work by reviewing different sections at a time. For example, a proofreader may begin by reviewing all of the heading and chapter titles to ensure they are consistent and correct. Next, the proofreader may then go back through the document focusing on any tables or figures. It is only at the end that a proofreader will read through the entire document to see if there are any problems or errors that they missed the first few times.

This post answers a request from supervisors at the Department of Science, Information Technology, Information and the Arts (DSITIA) who were looking for tips on proofreading for their teams. I hope it helps!

Many people spend a long time writing a first draft of their documents and five minutes checking spelling and grammar at the end.

It���s faster to write quick first drafts and then to use a slower, structured editing and proofreading process. That way, you will spend less time staring anxiously at the blank screen worried that your work won���t be perfect. Yes your quick first draft will be full of errors ��� but that���s ok because you don���t show anyone your first draft.

Supervisors should talk to staff about their writing projects at the planning stage and then check their work once they are closer to the final draft. The first draft is strictly a private writer’s matter.

During the editing process, writers should check for accuracy, flow of ideas, tone and language. Editing mean making sure it is the right document for the right audience. That process involves at least three reads through, before you even begin proofreading.

Proofreading is where you look for the mechanical errors ��� spelling and grammatical mistakes. You have to do it slowly because this is the part where you check every single word in the document, with your style guide and dictionary open beside you.

Usually you have to proofread at least twice, using techniques that work best for you. For example, I find it easiest to proofread by printing the document and putting a wooden ruler under each line to hide the next line of print. That forces me not to glance ahead and holds me to the line. For the second read through, I put a coloured transparency over the printed page. Curiously my eyes pick up more errors that way. When I transfer the corrections to the Word document on my computer, I often pick up more errors.

You may find that reading out loud or reading backwards (from the end of the text to the beginning) work better for you.

Because we know that our mistakes become invisible after a few reads through ��� we only see what we think we wrote ��� most people wisely choose to give their work to someone else to check, even after their own careful proofreading.

In workplaces, it is sensible to set up a buddying system for proofreading. Everyone should have one person they trust to proofread their work before it goes to the supervisor. Mechanical errors should not be delegated upwards.

Because we are all sensitive about the way comments are made on our writing, supervisors can offer team members a set of easy-to-use proofreading symbols to use.

Here is an example of some symbols you might use:

• Circle spelling misteaks.
• Underline errors in Capital usage.
• Circle punctuation��� errors
• Put a squiggly line down the page. For grammatical errors.
• Use an upside down v to show where word is missing.
• Draw a line through words or sentences that need to be removed. And sentences that are unnecessary.
• Use a # to show when aspace is needed.
• Use rep to show unnecessary repetition. (e.g. The car was blue in colour.)
• Use wdy (for wordy) if what you have written is unnecessarily verbose, tends towards having an extraneous amount of words, or just simply tends to go on and on without any apparent reason or justification.
• Use awk (for awkward) if the written words you have come up with tend towards needing clarification.
• Use jar to indicate jargon.
• Use acro to show there are too many acronyms
• Use stet (a Latin term) to indicate that the proofreading marks calling for a change should be ignored and that the text as originally written should be let stand.

Notice that these symbols don���t encourage the proofreader to rewrite the work. They are just pointing out errors for the writer to fix. This is quicker for the proofreader and leaves the writer in charge of her work.

Ideally the team can discuss the symbols in a meeting before using them. They may want to add other symbols for common errors that come up in a particular workplace.

The more we talk about our proofreading approaches, the more we realise that we all make these mistakes. It is not shameful but it needs to be fixed and we can help each other to do it.

If you are proofreading a publication to go to an external printer, you���ll need to use the standard symbols of the publishing industry, which take longer to learn. You will find these listed fully in the 6th edition of the Australian Style Manual published by Wiley.