You've just writtenimportant paper, business communique, or other document that will be read by others and perhaps will bebasis forclassroom grade,prospective business arrangement, or provide necessary information forspecific situation. Regardless ofend use of this document, it is important to you that it not contain any errors or embarrassing grammar and punctuation mistakes. You've run spellcheck, but you understand that spellcheck is not foolproof. Your document needs to be proofread.

Ideally, you needprofessional proofreader (or some other objective person) to read your document and correct whatever errors there might be in it. However, time and circumstance are not always conducive to usingproofreader. When this happens, you have to proofread it yourself.

Self-proofreading is fraught with pitfalls,biggest of which is that you are "too close" totext. That is, you know what you meant to write, even if that's not exactly what you did write. Your brain can easily fill ingaps and skim over simple errors likeincorrect wrong verb tense ormissed word inwell-used phrase. The mechanism in your brain that does this is called your "short-term memory"---and it can be very strong. Before you self-proofread, you need to allow your short-term memory (STM) to "dump" (that is, to allow what is stored in your STM to be deleted).

After you have finished your document---WALK AWAY. You needminimum of threezero minutes between having finisheddocument and proofreading it. It is best if you do something that is completely disassociated with that document: work on something else that has no connection totext in your document, go forwalk, makefew phone calls, or cleancobwebs out ofcorners ofceiling. Clear your head in any manner you wish, but be sure to do it.

When you are ready to proofread your own document, do not read it from start to finish. It is best if you can print it; this will allow you to read it in non-sequential order. Readmiddle two pages first, go back and readbeginning, and then readlast pages. Reading your text out of order will make it easier for you to see what is really there instead of what you want to see.

As you read along, if you "stumble" on any particular sentence, then go back and read it aloud. Yes---saywords. Better yet, put your finger under each word as you say it. This technique will help you to "hear"error (maybewrong verb tense orword that is missing). When you finderror (spelling, missing word, wrong word, missing punctuation), mark it onprinted page. You do not have to know proofreading marks---just use whatever shorthand you'll understand.

After you have read your paper, out of order, make allcorrections that you have marked. Be careful! It is really easy to insert that comma inwrong place (and I am speaking from experience here!). Key incorrection, and then review it on screen. Continue through your entire document, making allcorrections needed.

At this point, you should use "Find" to locate your trouble words. Perhaps you always waffle about whether to use affect or effect. Maybe you know that you often use it's when you should use its. Enter your trouble word(s) intoFind field, and click on Find Next until you have gone throughentire document.

Now you need to rerun spellcheck. Fortip on how to reset spellcheck (so that spellcheck will actually re-checkentire document, not justchanges that you made), go to "How to Re-Set Spellchecker," at: (http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/ResetSpellcheck.htm).

If time permits, walk away from this document again for threezero minutes. Since you've already cleaned outcobwebs, maybe it's time to rearrange your sock drawer. Come back todocument and skim through it one more time. If your brain stumbles over anything, read it aloud, put your finger under each word, and check for wrong verb tense, missing word, wrong word, etc. If you change even one thing, then you need to re-set your spellcheck and run it one last time.

Here'sfinal word of caution about spellcheck: Spellcheck does not always suggestright thing. That is, spellcheck might stop at its and suggest that it iscommonly mis-used word, do you want to change its to it's. Don't get "Change" happy. When spellcheck beeps, look atcorrection it is suggesting and then re-readsentence in its entirety. If, in fact, you want to makechange suggested, then do so. If not, then hit Ignore and continue on. Likewise, do not get "Ignore" happy---every time spellcheck hiccups, reviewchange being suggested, re-readsentence in its entirety, and makedecision to makechange or to ignore it.

There are many other ways that your computer can help you to producedocument that is free of error. For other helpful articles, please go to my index of Writing and Grammar articles at: http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/#Grammar_and_Writing:.

Through intelligent use of your computer's word processing software, spellcheck, and your brain, you can produce[almost] error-free document.

This article was posted on September oneseven, twozerozerofive