Make A Proofreading Checklist
If you’ve written many times in the past, you’re probably familiar with the kind of mistakes that you usually make in your copy. Chances are, these are difficulties you end up committing repeatedly, whether they be grammar, spelling or related to other facets of your composition.
For the most part, many of these will be careless mistakes, such as common typos and misspellings (most of which, you should be able to set up for a grammar software to fix). However, they can also be comprised of more difficult errors, such as having a tendency to write long sentences or putting together hasty closing sections.
A proofreading checklist is an account of these frequent sticking points, one that you put together, specifically, for the purpose of simplifying the job of whoever’s going to be proofing your work. With such a record to refer to, you can have a clearer idea of which aspects of the text you must pay particular attention to, as they are the most likely to feature mistakes.
If you’re working with a proofreader or an editor, make sure to give them a copy of this checklist. Also, make sure to do a quick rundown based on it (with the help of a grammar-fixing software), before turning in your work. After all, the less of these mistakes you can catch before passing on to the next guy, the more they can focus on less mechanical areas of your piece, such as coherence, style and clarity.