Why Proofread?
Before submitting a piece of academic writing, it is always a good idea to take the time to read through your work and make sure that there are no mistakes in your spelling, punctuation, grammar, typography, use of language and formatting. Most academic work allows some marks to be awarded for correct language and structure.
Therefore by proofreading your work before you decide that it is complete, you are giving yourself the best possible chance of achieving the highest marks.
Proofreading is not necessarily about editing the content of your work and making changes to what you have written, but it is a task focused solely on the finer details. Proofreading involves checking over your work carefully, and is a task that takes time, concentration and attention to detail. It is for this reason that you should not leave proofreading until the last minute. In professional companies that publish work, such as magazines or medical journals, there are people employed specifically to proofread the material before it is released to avoid the embarrassment of mistakes being made.
Proofreading Tips
It is a good idea to start with a dictionary and thesaurus by your side when beginning to proofread. Or, if doing so on your laptop, you can use the ‘synonym’ option to help you when you feel that a word is not right. Proofreading can be a mundane task, so ensure that there are no distractions around you by turning your phone off and not using the Internet for any other purpose than to help you in your task of proofreading.
When proofreading your own work, you are often so familiar with the content that it is hard to disconnect your mind from focusing on what you think is written. In order to allow the language and format of the work, along with any mistakes, you need to allow this to be your focus. In order to help you focus, it may be beneficial to find a quiet, tidy space to carry out your proofreading as this will reduce the chances of you being distracted.
Another tip is to print off the work and proofread it on paper instead. It can be a lot easier to concentrate on the words that you are reading when they are on paper, and it will reduce the amount of time you have to spend looking at a screen. Then go through your work with a coloured pen or highlighter to mark any changes you need to make on the paper copy. This way, when you use it to edit your typed work, the parts you have changed will be easy to find.
In addition to this, some people like to take the time to read the work backwards. This can take a lot of time and be quite hard to get used to, but it will make any typography errors stand out as you are entirely focusing on the word, not its context.
Remember, that although you can use grammar and spell checking tools on your computer, these may not be reliable, and the only fool-proof way is to proofread your work yourself, or ask a friend or family member to do so for you if you are struggling to disconnect from the content.
Obtain an instant quote for our proofreading service
At Express Proofreading we offer a professional academic proofreading and business proofreading service. We are able to ensure that your work is not only free from spelling mistakes and grammatical errors but we also check syntax, sentence structure and are able to recommend improvements and suggestions that are relevant to your work. We also as part of our standard proofreading service recommend content improvement suggestions and we will also check that your tables and footnotes are accurate and consistent with your bibliography.
To obtain an instant quote for us to proofread your work, click the Instant Quote button below and upload your document and our Quote Generator will calculate an instant quote based upon the word count of your document. Once you are happy with your quote, you can then click Place Order and proceed to our secure checkout page.