Advice from Grammar Girl

In Episode #21 Grammar Girl discusses proof reading. She was asked by a reader for tips on how to proof read and catch all the tiny mistakes that one usually misses when proof reading. Proof reading is not an easy task because it is hard to be objective to your own thoughts and ideas. It is even harder to be objective to the way you express your thoughts and ideas.

The First bit of advice Grammar Girl gave was to read the paper back to yourself out loud. I usually do this and find it to be very helpful. When you read in your head you do not read the entire word your eyes only glance at certain letters in it. When reading your own writing back to yourself it is hard to catch spelling errors and missed words like “to” and “the” if you are not reading out loud. By reading out loud you read slower and can catch those mistakes.

Grammar Girl also suggested waiting before you proof read, that way what you have written is no longer fresh in your mind and you can be more objective to your writing. Along with this she said it is easier to proof read your writing if you are doing it on paper and not on the computer. I think that that is good advice because anything tangible, like a pen and paper, is easier to manage than something that is intangible, like a computer screen with letters all over it.