Proofreading will uncover errors including wrong words, spelling errors, grammatical errors, typographical errors (typos), errors in tense, errors in pronoun-verb agreement and other errors. Errors in print give a poor impression of the writer as well as the written work; they cause the reader to feel a lack of confidence in the information as a whole. If you tend to make these types of errors, have someone else review your work. Trying to proofread your own work is often non-productive; you tend to not see the errors each time that you read them. In this article, I will discuss some of the common errors found in print today. Being aware of these will help you to identify them and either fix them or avoid them completely.
Using the spell check feature in MS Word or other word processors will only let you know if you have written a word that is not in their dictionary. If you type their instead of there it will not usually catch the error. Even the grammar-checking feature should only be considered a guideline. It does not uncover all errors nor does it always give you accurate suggestions for fixing each of your errors.
Reading software is an interesting technique that can be used to detect some errors and be a good proofreading aid. Reading software will speak your text. You will find that if you have repeated words like the the you will be immediately alerted when you hear it. But by just reading it, you (like many people) will not see the double word, especially if it is the last word on one line and the first word on the next line.
What do I mean by pronoun-verb agreement? I walk, he walks, they walk are correct forms to use. She walk is incorrect.
Correct tense is another important factor to keep in mind when writing or proofreading your work. I often see written works in which the author switches back and forth between present tense and past tense. Sometimes depending upon the situation, this is fine but in many cases, it is best to keep everything in the same tense. If you are talking about something that happened sometime in the past, use the past tense.
Plural and singular terms should also be reviewed when proofreading your text. Three hat is incorrect, of course. We must say, or write, three hats. These types of errors are also easy to miss when proofreading your own work because your eye just reads past the error and sees what it wants to see and not what is actually on the paper.
After doing your own proofreading, have someone else proofread your work. Or, better yet, have a professional proofreader or editor review it. That way you can ensure that you paper is error free.
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