7 Easy Strategies To Make Proofreading a Game Changer for Your Writing

Jan 7

Choose one strategy to improve your writing success

When we publish on an open platform like Medium, WordPress, Substack, or LinkedIn, most of us don’t have the luxury of having our work professionally edited or proofread. Spell check and grammar apps are excellent tools, but they will only take you so far. The tedious task of proofreading inevitably falls to the writer.

As a reader, I rarely continue to read past typos and errors in a text. Everyday Medium publication editors receive hundreds of stories for consideration and will likely pass if there are typos, grammar mistakes and formatting errors.

I edited and proofread throughout my career in government and business, and now I help other writers and business clients with the task. It’s easy to spot errors in someone else’s work or a sentence that can be improved or strengthened. But it’s not the same for my own writing.

No matter how skilled you are as a writer, you’re going to miss something. It happens to everyone because our minds take shortcuts when processing familiar information. How many times have you missed an obvious error? Those errors distract the reader from the potential of your story. And those errors prevent you from getting into the publications you want.

Let me tell you about my writing process and share seven easy proofreading strategies I rely on.

My writing process

Each of us writes for a different reason. I write because I have stories I want to share. I try and follow Hemingway’s advice to F. Scott and write the best story I can as straight as I can.

When I am done writing, I spend an equal amount of time editing. I focus on creative content, consistency of voice and tone, and sentence and paragraph structure. Believe me, at this point, I just want to hit submit or publish. But the last step remains — the most tedious — proofreading.

What is proofreading

A professional proofreader focuses on grammar and spelling errors, sentence structure and choice of words. They also pick up on any inconsistencies of style, punctuation errors, hyperlinks that don’t work, incorrect usage of words and homophones (discrete vs. discreet), uneven flow of writing and many other picky points.

Since I don’t have a professional proofreader (and even if I do this for others), I have no choice but to fix these things up as I go through my editing process. My final proofreading is really just a last reading to make sure my writing is perfect before sending it off into the world.

Here are my seven proofreading secrets to ensure my final read really “dots the i’s and crosses the t’s.” Try some of these strategies and find the ones that work best for you. Each one adds only minutes to the writing process but pays a nice dividend.

Sleep on it

We are all eager to finish a story or article and get it out there. I know the itch. In my case, the story has been on my mind for days — every time I took a shower or went for a walk.

It’s hard to put it aside, but letting the story sit a day or longer while I work on something else or go on with my life is a valuable proofreading technique. The benefits of fresh eyes when I take a break from my text are immeasurable. I always see it differently and it’s easier to spot errors the next day.

Read it out loud

This is my favourite proofreading technique, and it’s always in my arsenal. When I read my writing silently, errors and awkward phrases are sometimes not obvious. As I read my writing over and over again on my screen, I no longer truly see it.

When I read aloud, all the awkwardness and mistakes in my writing jump out and scream for attention. This method is excellent to catch errors and smooth the flow of the words, particularly dialogue.

Read on different devices

When I read my writing on a different device, either my cellphone or iPad, I notice things I didn’t see before. Reading on my phone allows me to focus on one small chunk, one phone screen at a time.

The majority of people read on their cellphones. A bonus of proofreading on my cellphone is that I see the text as my reader does. This strategy forces me to break up paragraphs that are too long — those solid uninviting walls of text. So my work is never done until I have looked at it on my cellphone.

Blow it up

If you are writing on Medium, which is my preferred platform, this means you will have to copy and paste into a Word document. Once you blow up the font size to at least 26 points, the larger font size helps you zero in on all the minor errors.

Get your computer to read it to you or record it yourself and listen back

Once you have your text on a Word document, you can use the “Read Aloud” function under the “Review” tab to have your computer read your text to you.

Close your eyes and listen. You will hear a word’s missing s. The word with a typo will be mispronounced. And more, when you hear a sentence you may realize a little adjustment will strengthen it.

Sometimes, I record myself reading my text using an app called Voice Recorder Pro and listen back to how it sounds.

Print it out

It may sound like a wasted effort or outdated to those who find writing, editing and proofreading on a screen second nature. Still, it is a valuable proofreading tool because you see your writing in a different format and notice things you did not see before. While you are at it, you can also:

remove unnecessary adjectives and adverbs,
replace weak words,
ensure there is one idea per paragraph,
divide long paragraphs into two.

Ask a writing buddy

I have saved the best for last. A few weeks ago, I joined a writing group with three other supportive women. Chances are their names will appear at the bottom of this text. That means they had something to say about my writing. We share our stories, and I get their comments and constructive criticism. And a huge bonus is they help me catch all those small pesky mistakes that I swear I didn’t have.

It’s easy to reach out to another writer and see if you can work together.

Final thought

My writing process has three distinct steps: drafting the story, editing and proofreading. I recommend choosing one or two of my proofreading strategies that will work for you. It will only take a few minutes to give your work one final proofreading. Then hit publish or submit and rest easy that you have done your best..

Alice Goldbloom