By While writing, it is very common to make mistakes, even if you are a professional writer. These errors can cause a dent in your credibility and confuse your reader. To address this, proofreading is the best way to put behind these common mistakes.
If you want to improve your writing and want to know how to proofread, then let’s see how you can improve your writing skills and remove these errors with proofreading.
Common Writing Mistakes
Mistakes are something that every human being makes. You and I are no exception. But it is a responsibility to work on those mistakes and get better. Every writing professional can make common mistakes, but what are those mistakes? Let’s take a look!
Incorrect Words
If there are incorrect words in your text, then there is a massive problem for your credibility. Sometimes words feel relevant, but they are not. For example, “affect” can be mistakenly used for “effect”.
Always use a dictionary to quickly know the meaning of the word. Incorrect can be embarrassing in front of native speakers. Proofread your text carefully to correct words as they can bypass many online checks.
Wrong Punctuations:
Punctuation mistakes are very common among mid-level writers. While writing sentences, it’s important to know when they should break. Long sentences always require punctuation in places where it should be.
You have to utilize commas, colons, semicolons, and periods in perfect places to make the most sense in your text. Proofread your text slowly to understand the flow of punctuation in your text. Place and remove punctuation accordingly.
Misspellings & Typo Mistakes
Misspellings and typos are the most common mistakes. Sometimes you just write so fast without paying attention to what you are writing. And in some cases you just don’t know the word’s spelling. Now, these small mistakes can make your text slow to read.
The simple and most effective way for this is to proofread your written text at a very sloppy pace. There are other methods you can use like free online spell checkers, which are good, but don’t give perfect results.
Inconsistent Formatting
Appealing and easy to read documents is something that every reader likes. And to make your document appealing and easy to read, you have to use consistent formatting. It can help readers to navigate in the document easily.
Choose a single font for your whole document. Do not change the font in the middle. Use consistent styling. Single proofread can highlight formatting issues in your text. Use it wisely!
Incorrect Grammar
Now these errors can also be very common among beginner writers. These mistakes can happen only if you don’t know the language well enough to write. Beginner writers who are at the basic level in the language they are writing often don’t know how to form sentences.
They can easily write present sentences with good grammar but when it comes to future and past sentences with high information, their grammar can lose its balance. To address this, use online grammar tools and proofread your text as many times as you can.
How to Proofread?
Here comes the important part. Now we will know some useful ways to proofread like a pro! Let’s break it down into some pieces:
- Have A Time Off: I know how tired you get after writing. This is why a little break is important. Always take some time off, even if you are doing anything. Break can replenish your brain into something new. Try taking a quick nap before proofreading.
- Online Tools: Not using online tools in this internet age can be a mistake. Try every tool related to proofreading to improve your writing. Some popular tools are Grammarly, and Hemingway. Use these wisley for proofreading.
- Read The Text: Get in a quiet room with zero disturbance and read aloud your text. This way you are not only reading, but also listening to your own text. Your tongue and ears can also automatically detect errors while reading aloud.
- Print the Text: Continuously looking at the screen can cause headaches, especially if you are reading. For this, just print your text in any paper to proofread. This can help your eyes to relax. You can also take the paper anywhere open to proofread it.
- Use Different Perspective: You can proofread your text from a friend or a family member, because sometimes you are just so inside the topic that only a unique view can detect common mistakes. Sometimes use a different perspective for unique proofreading.
Proofreading Services
Now, there is a premium way for proofreading. You can hire a professional for only proofreading tasks. And because he/she is a professional in proofreading, you are always always sure of getting the detection results.
Proofreading services are everywhere. Doesn’t matter where you are located. For example, you can find proofreading service USA, proofreading services Australia, and Proofreading Services UAE.
The best way to work with a proofreading expert is online. Hire them as a freelancer and pay them per word. Always hire a professional who is native or bilingual in the language you are writing. Hire the one who has some sort of certification in the field.
Conclusion
Proofreading has always been the most important step in writing. Note down all the common mistakes we talked about to find them easily, because every writer can make it. You can apply the methods we mentioned for proofreading to get the best results.
You can proofread yourself to improve your writing according to your style. This way you can also improve your brain in proofreading. Or if you have too much work, you can hire a professional proofreader online. Try to avoid common mistakes yourself to improve your writing.
Every time you write, do not forget to proofread it, otherwise, with common mistakes it is of no good. When you proofread your text, you not only improve your writing, but also help the reader to understand what you are telling and to connect with you easily.