Last Updated on March 3, 2023
Efficient proofreading is an integral aspect of generating outstanding essays. Therefore, there is no room for chances as you have to use all ways possible to ensure your work is clean and of high quality. This post will explain eight tried and proven proofreading strategies.
1. Read your essay out loud
Silent reading works best when you are going through some content with the aim of understanding it. However, this is not the best method to use when trying to pick errors.
Many people would consider reading out loud lame, but there couldn’t be a better reading technique to enable you to identify mistakes you’ve made in your paper. This is because when voicing what you have written, it is inevitable that you will vocalize errors you might have made, making it possible for your ears to pick them.
Alternatively, to ensure you get a clean and excellent paper, you can get reliable proofreading from online essay writing services. With stringent quality assurance policies, you are guaranteed of work free of mistakes. You can also use proofreading tools.
2. Ask a friend to go through it
It is astonishingly easy for other people to point out our mistakes more than we can ourselves. It would not be a surprise if you went through your paper and saw a couple of errors while in the real sense you have tons of errors in your essay.
Based on this account, it is essential for you to look for someone who can go through your work on your behalf prior to submitting it. By doing this, the chances are that the other person will identify inconsistencies that you had not seen during your first reading.
Finding essay writer can help you check and ascertain the quality of your essay. With years of experience, these professionals are dedicated to assisting you in writing exceptional papers by carefully going through your work and making necessary changes.
3. Read from the conclusion upwards
Another essential strategy uncommon for many students is reversing the whole process and starting reviewing the paper from the bottom.
When writing your paper logically starting from the introduction to the conclusion, your brain becomes acquainted with the flow of ideas in such a way that it is conscious of the storyline from the start to the end, making it difficult for it to identify and register some of the errors you might have made.
However, when reading from the conclusion, the brain kind of receives a new perspective of the events due to the change in the flow of ideas, making it easy for it to pick errors you would have otherwise missed out without knowing. It is important to be certain of your work, and using this as one of the ways of proofreading will eliminate a good deal of mistakes you might have possibly made.
4. Compare your paper with the public
The marking public ought to be the benchmark for your essay. One of the primary aspects of proofreading is ensuring that your content matches your tutor’s requirements and expectations.
First of all, ensure that you have used the required writing format. This is one of the things tutors check before even reading your essay. Secondly, ensure that you have all segments included, starting from the cover page to the references page. After this, check whether you have written all sections of your paper starting with the introduction.
Finally, check whether the points you have addressed in these sections comprehensively satisfy grading points listed in the grading public. Whenever you are convinced otherwise, go back to the drawing board and elaborate your arguments at length.
5. Enlarge font
If you spend a lot of time in front of your computer, your eyes are susceptible to getting tired, making it difficult to pick out errors especially when using the font your eyes are used to. It is amazing how enlarging the size can help you easily identify mistakes without much struggling. After finishing writing, make your writings bigger with respect to the screen size of your computer. This will break the monotony for your eyes.
6. Go through it a day later
This is one of the proofreading hacks that will guarantee you maximum elimination of errors. In order to use it, it is essential that you finish writing your essay maybe a day before the due date so that you can have ample time.
Trying to effectively review your work as soon as you finish writing is difficult because your mind is conscious of the chronology of events. Therefore, you will only be running through the sentences. It is astonishing how you can subconsciously fill in omitted words without realizing that you have not included them.
On the other hand, reading your paper a day later gives you a fresh view to the content and the flow of ideas, making your mind alert and fast to identify the slightest of mistakes you might have committed.
7. Obtain a print copy of your paper
Scheming through your essay on a different medium may go a long way in enabling you to pick out mistakes. This is because your eyes will be exposed to different light intensity and nature of the medium. In addition, it is much easier to scrabble through a printed copy than a digital one, making it convenient to see errors.
8. Adopt a reading and writing culture
The essence of this last strategy cannot be overemphasized. They say that practice makes perfect, and this is not any different with both writing and proofreading.
In order to master the art of proofreading, you have to read intensively and extensively. This is to acquaint yourself with different writing techniques, common mistakes and also qualities of excellent content. Therefore, make time to read different content, more so the academic type.
