Your boss or colleagues may have told you in the past that you need to proofread your work before submitting it. Although you didn’t admit it at the time, it’s possible that you asked yourself the following questions: What is proofreading anyway? Why should I even bother?
Proofreading is the process of reviewing the final draft of a piece of writing to ensure consistency and accuracy in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting.
By the time a document is ready to be proofread, it should have been edited already. This means its content should already be well organized, well written, and easy to understand. Editing also involves removing errors, but it focuses more on making sure the document makes sense.
Proofreading, on the other hand, is about finding errors both small and large that were either missed or introduced during editing. Proof-readers should ensure that the document’s final draft is completely free of grammatical errors (e.g., subject–verb agreement problems, incorrect word choices, improper punctuation usage, and incorrect spelling) as well as formatting and typographical errors. They also make sure the document adheres to the chosen style guide.
Below is the infographic that you can refer to when you are doing proofreading.
Conclusion
It is very important to proofread every copies before you submit to your bosses, stakeholders or clients. A copy with zero mistakes will attract more readers and will portray a better impression. Start to proofread today!
Sources:
What Is Proofreading? Everything You Need to Know about Having Your Work Proofread
