#ProofreadingTips

We often see what we expect to see, which makes #proofreading difficult. It's even harder if there are two or three very small words next to each other. Slow down and look carefully...

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #BusinessWriting

Watch out for small words together
• as it it today… 
• as it is today… 

Proofreading thought leadership No.33

When #proofreading, don’t try to do everything at once. Check consistency of layout separately from reading for typos, for example – are chapter titles formatted consistently? Are the page margins consistent? What about the styling on graphics or boxes?

Turn pages just to look at these layout issues – you see them more easily when you're not also trying to check the content.

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #BusinessWriting #proofreading

Go through looking just at layout and formatting
Proofreading thought leadership No.31

Proofreading: if a bibliography contains several authors with several references, are they treated the same way? For example, they might be in increasing or decreasing chronological order or in alphabetical order.

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #BusinessWriting #proofreading

Are authors with more than one bibliography entry handled consistently?  
Proofreading thought leadership No.30

Last week I challenged you to check alphabetisation when #proofreading a bibliography. This week, an even harder task: are entries styled consistently? Are all books treated the same way? Are journal articles treated the same way? What about volume numbers or page ranges? Don't try to do this check at the same time as alphabetisation – there's too much to think about, so for me these are separate tasks.

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #BusinessWriting

Are bibliography entries styled consistently?  
Proofreading thought leadership No.29

It's surprisingly difficult to spot alphabetisation errors when #proofreading a bibliography, so make a point of looking for them.

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #BusinessWriting

Is the bibliography correctly alphabetised?  
Proofreading thought leadership No.28

Proofreading: these repetitions can easily happen in editing, as a result of accidentally selecting too much or too little text when deleting or inserting text. They can also be easy to miss when reading, because we see what we expect to see. Be on the lookout!

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #BusinessWriting #Proofreading

Watch out for out for accidental repetition in text pasted in or edited 

[the repeated text is highlighted]

Proofreading thought leadership No.26

Proofreading: beware of words that sound right but have the wrong meaning. It's easy to miss them!

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Watch out for words that sound the same but aren’t: 
team [spelled with an 'ea']	teem [spelled with 'ee']
waste [spelled w a s t e]	waist [spelled w a i s t]


Proofreading thought leadership No.25

This is a real example from my email this week. There must be a typo somewhere, because 22 May 2023 does not fall on a Friday (under the Gregorian calendar). It’s very easy to miss these kinds of mistakes, so if you have any dates and/or days of the week, double-check them.

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #proofreading

Check dates
For example, imagine I invite you to an event on Friday 22 May 2023 –  try to put it in your calendar 
The closest Fridays are 19 and 26 May; 22 May 2023 is a Monday

Proofreading thought leadership No.18

Proofreading: if text contains cross-references such as ‘see section 7’ or 'see page 38', check that they’re still accurate – it’s easy to forget to update them when text gets moved or deleted, so before you publish check for ‘broken links’, so to speak.

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #proofreading

Check all cross-references 

Proofreading thought leadership No.17

Proofreading: beware of unconsciously assuming contact details must be correct. Are names spelled right? Are email addresses or phone numbers accurate?

Be especially aware of: who's responsible for contact info – it's easy for everyone to assume someone else is checking it

If the info has been rolled forward from last time, has anything changed? It's easy to miss changes in role or people leaving or joining the team

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #proofreading

Double-check contact details 
Proofreading thought leadership No.16

When #proofreading lists, watch out for consistent punctuation: do lines end with nothing, a full stop or a semi-colon, for example?

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications

Make sure bulleted lists are punctuated consistently 
Proofreading thought leadership No.15

If there are any numbered elements, check each series separately – for example, go through checking that footnotes are numbered sequentially, then go through again checking that tables are numbered sequentially. This reduces the risk of confusion and mistakes.

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #proofreading

Check series separately:   
• page numbers
• numbered sections/headings
• figure/table numbers

Proofreading thought leadership No.14

Slow down when #proofreading. We tend to recognise words by their overall shape, so you need to force yourself to slow down if you’re to notice when individual letters are mising or duplicaated.

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications

Go slowly – read letter by letter and word by word    
Proofreading thought leadership No.13

Slow down on words that have two of the same letter next to each other – the eye often skims over it if there are accidentallly threee of them.

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #proofreading

Watch out for double letters – are there two or three of them?   
•   This blog post asssumes…
•   We loooked into…
•   We controllled…

Proofreading thought leadership No.12

If there are two errors close together, it’s easy to miss the second because you unconsciously think you’ve ‘done’ that bit of text – so make yourself look again.

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #proofreading

Proofreading thought leadership No.11
After you find a mistake, look at the sentence or line again – it’s easy to miss the next one because you’ve mentally ‘done’ that bit

Many people find that hearing their text is a good way to notice missing or incorrect words. You can read it out yourself or use Word’s Read Aloud function. #ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #proofreading

Read it out loud to spot missing or wrong words
Proofreading thought leadership No.10

It’s notoriously hard to spot errors in titles, so check and double-check them. Do they say what they’re supposed to say? #ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #proofreading

Double-check the cover or heading – it’s easy to miss a typo in a title 
Proofreading thought leadership No.8

If you’re #proofreading digital text such as a web page or PDF, check the links.

Remember to check that they do actually link to the right place – it's very easy to get into a rhythm clicking a lot of links in a large file, thinking 'yep, that one goes somewhere; yep, that one goes somewhere...' but it takes a bit of concentration to make sure they all go to the right 'somewhere' 😁

#ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications

Click all links – do they work? Do they link to the right place? 
Proofreading thought leadership No.7

Proofreading: remember to check visuals as well as the text. And if any graphics or numbers changed during editing, make sure you’ve adjusted them everywhere they appear. #ThoughtLeadership #ProofreadingTips #CorporateCommunications #proofreading

Proofreading thought leadership No.3
   Remember to check graphics
•   eg labels on axes or key 
•   logical and consistent increments on axes
•   consistency with body text

It’s hard to tell if narrow letters are missing or duplicated, so whenever you get to a word such as ‘speciality’, ‘versatility’ or ‘arising’, slow down and check it letter by letter. #proofreading #ProofreadingTips #ThoughtLeadership #CorporateCommunications

Proofreading thought leadership No.1
Watch out for narrow letters
liabilty	liability	
pubic		public

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