Strategies to Help Identify Errors while Proofreading

1. Strategies to Help Identify Errors while Proofreading Presented By: Min Q Kim

2. Slide Title • Introduction • Before You Proofread • Strategies to Help Identify Errors • Individualize the Act of Proofreading • Contact Us

3. Proofreading  • Proofreading is the act of searching for errors before you hand in the your final research paper. • Errors can be both grammatical and typographical in nature, but also include identifying problems with the narrative flow of your paper [i.e., the logical sequence of thoughts and ideas], problems with concise writing, and finding any word processing errors [e.g., different font types, indented paragraphs, line spacing, uneven margins, etc.].

4. Before You Proofread • Be sure you've revised the larger aspects of the text. • Set your paper aside between writing and proofreading. • Eliminate unnecessary words before looking for mistakes. • Know what to look for. • Review your list of references.

5. Strategies to Help Identify Errors • Work from a printout, not a computer screen. Besides sparing your eyes the strain of glaring at the computer, proofreading from a printout allows you to easily skip around to where errors might have been repeated throughout the paper [e.g., misspelled name of a person]. • Read out loud. This is especially helpful for spotting run-on sentences, but you'll also hear other problems that you may not have identified while reading the text out loud. This will also helps you play the role of the reader, thereby, encouraging you to understand the paper as your audience might.

6. Strategies to Help Identify Errors • Use a ruler or blank sheet of paper to cover up the lines below the one you're reading. This technique keeps you from skipping over possible mistakes. This also helps you deliberately pace yourself as you read through your paper. • Circle or highlight every punctuation mark in your paper. This forces you to pay attention to each mark you used and to question its purpose in each sentence or paragraph. This is a particularly helpful strategy if you tend to misuse or overuse a punctuation mark, such as a comma or semi-colon.

7. Strategies to Help Identify Errors • Use the search function of the computer to find mistakes. Using the search [find] feature of your word processor can help you identify common errors faster. • If you tend to make many mistakes, check separately for each kind of error, moving from the most to the least important, and following whatever technique works best for you to identify that kind of mistake. 

8. Strategies to Help Identify Errors • End with using a computer spell checker or reading backwards word by word. Remember that a spell checker won't catch mistakes with homonyms [e.g., "they're," "their," "there"] or certain typos [like "he" when you meant to write "the"]. • Leave yourself enough time. Since many errors are made and overlooked by speeding through writing and proofreading, setting aside the time to carefully review your writing will help you catch errors you might otherwise miss. 

9. Strategies to Help Identify Errors • Ask a friend to read your paper. Offer to proofread a friend's paper if they will review yours. Having another set of eyes look over your writing will often spot errors that you would have otherwise missed.

10. Individualize the Act of Proofreading • Accept the fact that you likely won't be able to check for everything, so be introspective about what your typical problem areas are and look for each type of error individually. Here's how: • Think about what errors you typically make. • Learn how to fix those errors • Use specific strategies • Where you proofread is important! • Proofread in several short blocks of time.

11. Individualize the Act of Proofreading • In general, verb tense should be in the following format, although variations can occur within the text depending on the narrative style of your paper. • Abstract--past tense [the summary description of what I did] • Introduction--present tense [I am describing the study to you now] • Literature Review--past tense [the studies I reviewed have already been written]

12. Individualize the Act of Proofreading • Methodology--past tense [the way I gathered and synthesized data has already happened] • Results--past tense [the findings have already been discovered] • Discussion--present tense [I am talking to you now about how I interpreted the findings] • Conclusion--present tense [I am summarizing the study for you now]

13. Contact Us • Ediket Inc. • Address: 4023 Kennett Pike PMB 2019, • Wilmington DE 19807 • Phone Number: 888-622-3807 • Email: contact@ediket.com • Website: https://ediket.com • Resource: https://goo.gl/oppYcq

14. Thank You