4 (5) Tips for Better Proofreading
David Drake
Seasoned Business Development pro, helping companies in a variety of industries to effectively recover outstanding debt to improve cash flow and boost client relations.
Some good advice for communicators from my colleague, Trish Cunningham:
The team at Brookwoods Group reads a lot of articles on internal and external communications and have seen our share of ERROR DOOZIES. I, personally, am fortunate that my good friend Greg Clock lets me know if we’ve ever missed anything via email and we immediately correct the embarrassingly unseen pre-posting error – and that is often times after several sets of eyes have reviewed the text. (Thanks Greg!)
It is true that we can be too close to our own work to catch our errors. I agree with each of these 4 tips in this short Ragan.com article and would offer another because I learned to read upside down and backward since my sister would read to me as we sat cross-legged on the floor knee-to-knee. I leaned over the book following her finger along as she read. I can edit the work of others upside down and backward, but I'll never edit my own. There’s a reason for that – we become anesthetized to our own work and the errors are invisible to us most of the time.
#5. If all the other tips don’t work, turn it all upside down and go from bottom to top back.
4 Tips for Better Proofreading
I hope this provides kind reminders that the written word holds more power than we give credence to and it must be grammatically correct because once it’s out there it never goes away. Take time and effort before hitting POST. That extra time may save you face in the long run!