I’m the first to admit that I’m not a great proofreader. And I’ve had my share of stoopid stupid typos and mistakes slip through.

That’s always embarrassing. Even more embarrassing for a writer.

One answer is to hire a proofreader, as I did some years ago. But that can get expensive if you write a lot. And there’s just no way to stay on schedule if you have to wait for someone to review every little thing.

Another answer is to learn a few proofreading techniques so you can catch more of your own mistakes. Here are a few that work for me.

Allow time between writing and proofing. The problem with proofing your own work is that you know what you meant to write, so your brain automatically corrects mistakes as you read. It sees your intention rather than your actual writing. By setting your work aside, you give your brain time to forget what you’ve written so you can read it fresh later.

Proofread at your peak alert time. I’m most alert in the afternoon or evening. Maybe for you it’s morning. Whenever it is, that’s the best time to proofread.

Read out loud. This forces you to slow down and focus on each word.

Use spell check. It won’t catch every error, but it will catch some. Even better, try Whitesmoke, a software program that is smarter and more thorough than the typical spell check.

Proof for one kind of error at a time. For example, read through once for punctuation, again for spelling, again for grammar, etc. It’s more time-consuming, but you’ll catch more errors this way.

Look for your most common mistakes. If you’re like me, you have certain mistakes you make repeatedly. For me, it’s omitted words or truncated words. I’ll type “a” when I meant to type “and.” Keep a list of your frequent errors and look for them specifically.

Read backwards. This is good for catching spelling errors, though for me it’s always been hard to do. The idea is to read from the end of the document to the front, one sentence at a time.

Print it before you proof it. I don’t like to print any more than I have to, but this technique works. The printed piece looks different from the words on your computer screen, so it gives your eyes something fresh to look at and the errors become more visible.

Show it to someone else. No matter how well you proof your own work, there’s no substitute for another set of eyeballs. If you need someone to do this frequently, propose a proofing partnership. You read their stuff and they read yours. It’s cheaper than paying a professional proofreader.

Do you have a favorite proofreading tip you’d like to share?

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1. Whitesmoke to the writer’s rescue
2. Spelling errors that make you look like an idiot
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