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Proofreading
Goal: to remove all grammatical and mechanical errors from your paper
Time: 20 minutes
It is important that you learn to think of revision, editing and proofreading as three different steps. Practice completing them at separate sittings so that you can truly focus on each individual task. Revision involves reeevaluating, redesigning, reorgainzing, and rewriting entire sections of your paper. You may change the paper drastically during the revision stage. On the other hand, Editing asks you to examine each sentence to make sure it is clear and concise, removing awkward phrases, and improving your word choice. Finally, Proofreading asks you to check grammar, punctuation, and spelling, so it should be completed at the very end of the process.
Proofreading is a step that less successful students often skip. Once you accept proofreading as a necessary and separate part of the writing process, you will find that the extra 20 minutes spent reviewing your paper for the final time will eliminate silly errors that can make work appear sloppy and unprofessional. For this activity you will read over your paper two separate ways to check for common errors.
Part 1
Read your paper out loud. Slowly savor every sentence, looking carefully at the words and punctuation on the page. This is not an occasion to change the content of the essay, so please refrain from making last-minute changes to ideas, sentence structure, and organization. Quick, last-minute changes can often lead to more errors. Instead read only for grammatical and mechanical errors such as:
Part 2
Read your paper backwards. This helps you look at the mechanics of the language rather than the sense, so it allows you to hone in on grammatical errors and typos. Start from the end and read to the beginning, changing any errors you encounter.