Proofreading and minor editing

First off, clarification: proofreading is looking for and fixing typos, missing or extra words and other small errors; editing is fixing grammar and punctuation and some content.

One of the most frequent requests I get is to check for little mistakes on a final draft of a paper. Because I get this request, students must know they often miss little things, but they are often surprised when I find they have misspelled a word, used the wrong verb tense or forgot a word completely.

Students should know that they’re not alone in making these mistakes. For my writing center training, I’m reading a book about tutoring at writing centers and they wrote the word “propositions” instead of “prepositions,” leading to a confusing sentence that told me not to make propositions before commas or periods. It happens even to the experts, I guess. I’ve also seen plenty of typos in popular novels and newspapers.

It’s easy to make fun when these mistakes are made in public documents, but proofreading can be tough.

I’d like to think I’m pretty accurate at proofreading, but I will sometimes let stupid mistakes slip, and notice them right before I turn in a paper.

• I have often heard that reading you paper backward is a good way to catch mistakes such as typos, missing words, extra words, awkward phrases and incomplete sentences. For awhile this method was never really explained to me, and I thought it meant reading each word individually from the last word to the first. That seemed excessive and I didn’t use it (though it would be an extra-thorough way to find individual typos if you really need a paper to be perfect). Now that I know it means reading whole sentences, it makes more sense, though I admit I still don’t do this, but it sounds very helpful.

• Though it is easy to write a paper on the computer, it is much harder to proofread and edit on a computer than on paper, so print your papers and read them. Keep in mind that spell check doesn’t catch everything. Homonyms don’t get caught, it doesn’t always catch missing words, and typos can result in actual words. You might end up with a sentence like “The Americans wont he Revolutionary War,” instead of “The Americans won the Revolutionary War.” Also, “cant” and “wont” are words, so be aware of apostrophe placement in contractions and possessives such as “student’s” and “students’.” For one reason or another, it’s also harder to catch mistakes on a computer screen. At a recent copyediting internship at a local newspaper, when we edited the paper, we would read stories on our online database and correct mistakes, but read them again printed out, where we would catch new mistakes almost every time. If possible, print out all your papers and read them before turning them in. Reading out loud can also help this along.

• One of the best ways to catch typos and little mistakes is to have someone else read it. Just like having someone else read a paper for clarity, if you have a reader who is observant and wants to help, he or she will find mistakes you miss. Once you’ve read your paper so many times, you know what you’re trying to say and it becomes nearly impossible to catch mistakes.

Grammar Girl also discussed proofreading on a previous entry entitled Proofreading Tips, which I thought was well written.

I think I proofread this entry well enough, but I might need someone to help me through the third point and let me know of any mistakes. I’ve read this too much to be able to edit thoroughly on my own.