The writing process can be divided into three stages;
1) Prewriting -- research and planning.
2) Writing -- putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and producing your document.
3) Post-writing-- perfecting the language in your document and ensuring it is of the highest quality that you can produce by proofreading for errors.
It is this last, post-writing stage, which is most often neglected. You have written your document and believe that you are almost finished. But this is not true. The last stage is where you are able to add extra value to your writing. It is this stage where you can go from a good mark to an excellent mark.
In this article I will present some do's and don'ts that should help you fully maximize the marks you get from the last stage by using some of the strategies that professional proofreaders use.
Do -- Work in an environment in which you are able to concentrate and not be distracted.
Don't-- Try to proofread while also watching television.
After you have finished writing your report or essay it is easy to think that the hard part is over and that you can relax, move away from your work desk and sit somewhere more comfortable and relaxed while proofreading your final copy. This will not help you. You need to maintain focus and concentration. You should work in an environment where you will not be distracted, the same sort of environment where you would write your document.
Do -- Take a break and come back to your document after a time away from it.
Don't -- Finish writing and start proofreading straight away.
Ideally you need to be able to take a break and come back to your work with a fresh set of eyes. If possible finish writing your document and leave it at least 24 hours before proofreading it. However, is not always possible to do this; often due to tight deadlines you are not able to let it rest for 24 hours. You should take a minimum of 10-20 minutes away from your desk. Go and have a cup of tea or a walk outside to refresh you before starting the proofreading. You need this break so that you can read what is on the page rather than what you thought you wrote.
Do -- Focus on one aspect of proofreading at a time.
Don't -- Try to fix everything at once, especially if English is not your first language.
Read your document several times when proofreading, each time focusing on a different aspect. Read once to make sure that your punctuation is correct, once to check for miss-spelt works or wrongly used words (e.g. there/their) and another time for poorly written sentences which need to be rewritten.
Do -- Print your document and proofread the hard copy.
Don't -- Proofread your document on a computer screen.
If you proofread your document on a computer screen, then print a hard copy and proofread it again you will be surprised at the number of mistakes you are able to find. Your eyes often miss the mistakes when you are reading on a computer screen, so you should print your work and read the hard copy when proofreading.
So, if you are able to take a break after finishing writing your document, print a hard copy, work in an environment without distractions and proofread for one type of error at a time you should be able to maximize the marks that you get or the quality of your document by spending in the right amount of time on the post-writing stage, which is just as important as the prewriting and writing stages when producing a high quality document.
Of course if you don't have time or need your document to be the very best it can be you could always employ a professional proofreader.
Copyright Jolyon Dodgson PhD. Jolyon, the author of this article, is a research scientist, qualified TEFL teacher (teaching English as a foreign language) and freelance proofreader specializing in scientific, academic, website, business and ESL proofreading. Much more useful information about writing and proofreading, written by him, can be found at his website http://www.excellent-proofreading-and-writing.com. Where you can also submit your documents for his proofreading and copy editing service.
By Jolyon Dodgson
1) Prewriting -- research and planning.
2) Writing -- putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and producing your document.
3) Post-writing-- perfecting the language in your document and ensuring it is of the highest quality that you can produce by proofreading for errors.
It is this last, post-writing stage, which is most often neglected. You have written your document and believe that you are almost finished. But this is not true. The last stage is where you are able to add extra value to your writing. It is this stage where you can go from a good mark to an excellent mark.
In this article I will present some do's and don'ts that should help you fully maximize the marks you get from the last stage by using some of the strategies that professional proofreaders use.
Do -- Work in an environment in which you are able to concentrate and not be distracted.
Don't-- Try to proofread while also watching television.
After you have finished writing your report or essay it is easy to think that the hard part is over and that you can relax, move away from your work desk and sit somewhere more comfortable and relaxed while proofreading your final copy. This will not help you. You need to maintain focus and concentration. You should work in an environment where you will not be distracted, the same sort of environment where you would write your document.
Do -- Take a break and come back to your document after a time away from it.
Don't -- Finish writing and start proofreading straight away.
Ideally you need to be able to take a break and come back to your work with a fresh set of eyes. If possible finish writing your document and leave it at least 24 hours before proofreading it. However, is not always possible to do this; often due to tight deadlines you are not able to let it rest for 24 hours. You should take a minimum of 10-20 minutes away from your desk. Go and have a cup of tea or a walk outside to refresh you before starting the proofreading. You need this break so that you can read what is on the page rather than what you thought you wrote.
Do -- Focus on one aspect of proofreading at a time.
Don't -- Try to fix everything at once, especially if English is not your first language.
Read your document several times when proofreading, each time focusing on a different aspect. Read once to make sure that your punctuation is correct, once to check for miss-spelt works or wrongly used words (e.g. there/their) and another time for poorly written sentences which need to be rewritten.
Do -- Print your document and proofread the hard copy.
Don't -- Proofread your document on a computer screen.
If you proofread your document on a computer screen, then print a hard copy and proofread it again you will be surprised at the number of mistakes you are able to find. Your eyes often miss the mistakes when you are reading on a computer screen, so you should print your work and read the hard copy when proofreading.
So, if you are able to take a break after finishing writing your document, print a hard copy, work in an environment without distractions and proofread for one type of error at a time you should be able to maximize the marks that you get or the quality of your document by spending in the right amount of time on the post-writing stage, which is just as important as the prewriting and writing stages when producing a high quality document.
Of course if you don't have time or need your document to be the very best it can be you could always employ a professional proofreader.
Copyright Jolyon Dodgson PhD. Jolyon, the author of this article, is a research scientist, qualified TEFL teacher (teaching English as a foreign language) and freelance proofreader specializing in scientific, academic, website, business and ESL proofreading. Much more useful information about writing and proofreading, written by him, can be found at his website http://www.excellent-proofreading-and-writing.com. Where you can also submit your documents for his proofreading and copy editing service.
By Jolyon Dodgson
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