{"id":1122,"date":"2010-07-20T09:08:14","date_gmt":"2010-07-19T23:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2012-08-15T18:10:20","modified_gmt":"2012-08-15T08:10:20","slug":"proofreading-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2010\/07\/proofreading-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Proofreading tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/proofread_red_pen.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-4686\" title=\"Proofreading with a red pen\" src=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/proofread_red_pen.jpg\" alt=\"Proofreading a printed copy\" width=\"178\" height=\"148\" \/><\/a>Ok, <a title=\"Proof read your work\u2026\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2011\/05\/proof-read-your-work\/\" target=\"_blank\">proofreading<\/a> is boring &#8211; not many people actually enjoy the thought of reading their work over and over again to find errors. It&#8217;s a bit better proofreading someone else&#8217;s work, but most people still don&#8217;t want to do it.<\/p>\n<p>However, like many things in business and in life, it is necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Necessary that is if you want a professional finish to your written materials.<\/p>\n<p>So here are my tips to make it as easy and painless as possible:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>hire a proofreader! Ok, I added this point for fun as a plug (yes i can proof read and edit for you!)\u00a0although it is a valid option<\/li>\n<li>get someone else to read it for you &#8211; fresh eyes are more likely to spot errors and other issues<\/li>\n<li>use a spell check to find the obvious typos (e.g. teh and yuo) BUT do not rely on it alone as it <a title=\"Monday meanings defines similar words\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/category\/monday-meanings\/\" target=\"_blank\">will not pick up the wrong word <\/a>(e.g. know and now are both real words) and may not use your local or preferred spelling (e.g. color vs colour)<\/li>\n<li>leave as much time as possible between writing\/editing and proofreading (or subsequent rounds of proofreading) &#8211; a few days is ideal but overnight is a minimum. If time really is short, do something else in between so your mind has &#8216;forgotten&#8217; some of the details<\/li>\n<li>read it out loud &#8211; your tongue often trips over things your eyes would accept<\/li>\n<li>read it backwards &#8211; that way you will read the actual words instead of the sentences so <a title=\"Poor spelling impacts on your content\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2012\/02\/poor-spelling-impacts-on-your-content\/\" target=\"_blank\">spelling errors<\/a> are more obvious<\/li>\n<li>print it rather than read it on a screen &#8211; not only is this easier on your eyes, it gives a different visual perspective and you can even read it away from your desk. I find curled up on a couch is great for editing printed documents&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>change magnification of the text &#8211; seeing it bigger sometimes makes words stand out more<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some tips will suit you more than others, some will be more appropriate for particular documents, too. However, using a range of techniques (especially for more important documents) will help you achieve a higher quality document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ok, proofreading is boring &#8211; not many people actually enjoy the thought of reading their work over and over again to find errors. It&#8217;s a bit better proofreading someone else&#8217;s work, but most people still don&#8217;t want to do it. However, like many things in business and in life, it is necessary. Necessary that is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,60],"tags":[267,1083,120,226],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar-details-2","category-writing","tag-errors","tag-proof-reading","tag-spelling","tag-tips"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1792,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions\/1792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}