Proofreading is an essential part of writing a paper and is most simply, reading your paper to find errors.
Techniques to proofread your paper
- Print out your paper to proofread it. It might help to get away from the computer and think about the words you are using.
- Typos and grammatical errors can result from being rushed or from spending too much time on the task. Take a break before proofreading to prevent fatigue errors.
- Ask someone else to read through your paper. Fresh eyes may help you recognize errors that you might not otherwise see.
- Try reading the paper aloud. When reading through your paper, you might read what you expect to see and not what is actually printed on the page. By reading aloud, you are forced to read what is actually written.
- Read the paper sentence by sentence, backwards. This strategy will get you to focus on the words on the page.