?How to Proofread an Essay for Spelling and Grammar
Proofreading is the last step in revising an essay - don't skip it! Just one typo can frequently ruin the hard perform of an entire paper. This lesson will help you realize the right proofreading strategy for you.
Proofread Essay for Spelling & Grammar
You've brainstormed, you've written and revised a smashing thesis, you've picked compelling examples and crafted exciting body paragraphs. and then delivered a smashing summary that's definitely going to convince your reader of your beauty, intelligence and wit. So you're done, right? Of course not! There's a particular added step to go, and that's to proofread your essay.
What is Proofreading?
Proofreading is the final step in revising your essay, where you check for grammar and spelling mistakes. missing words, and typos that you choose to would possibly not have caught as making other edits. It's also really tough! Mark Twain once wrote 'You think you happen to be reading proof, whereas you're merely reading your private mind; your statement within the thing is whole of holes and vacancies but you don't know it, considering you could be filling them from your mind as you go along.' In other words, you've written the piece, so your mind tends to fill inside blanks regardless if errors are staring you with the face.
Why Proofreading?
I'm not going to lie to you. A good amount of students skip or shortchange the proofreading step when crafting their papers. Composing a decent essay is hard operate, and after developing and reorganizing and polishing your paragraphs and examples, it's basic to get too tired of exploring at your personal piece to need to proofread it. Can't you just turn it in? Won't your teacher understand?
That's a perfectly understandable way to experience, but it's the wrong perspective. Proofreading is important not considering the fact that of what it adds to your essay, but due to the fact that of what it prevents. And what it prevents is catastrophe: nothing less than the annihilation of all of your hard do the job for the reason that of the misused comma, a run-on sentence or an incorrect possessive. Sounds melodramatic, doesn't it? But take this passage from one particular with the stories in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes .
'Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.'
The sentence is firm, conclusive, and elegantly phrased. Now start looking on the same sentence with some proofreading errors:
'Life is infinitaly stranger then anything which mind of man could invent.'
Observe that the meaning within the sentence hasn't changed whatsoever, but one particular misspelling ('infinitely'), 1 grammar mistake ('then' instead of 'than') and one particular typo ('the' is missing from the sentence), in addition to the sentence has completely lost its power.
Remember that an essay is undoubtedly an argument that you just are developing on your reader, ultimately trying to persuade him or her of your point of look at. By skipping the proofreading step, you risk letting silly mistakes slip through. Taken on their own unique, they may not matter very much, but inside context of your essay, an error like exchanging 'to' in case you mean 'too' can ruin your credibility. Proofreading allows for you to definitely sustain that credibility.
Proofreading Strategies
Get up from your paper and do something else for awhile. Seriously, go look at something, eat a meal, enjoy a game - whatever you could potentially do to get your paper out of your head for awhile. If you should try to proofread immediately after you finish producing, it's quite a bit harder to see the mistakes you may have made. This won't operate during a timed examination, of course, in which case you should continue to make use of the strategies that follow without taking a break. But in the event you can stop trying at your essay for a bit, you should.
Get a hold of the Right Proofreading Strategy for You
It's important to identify a proofreading strategy that functions for you. Some people prefer to proofread which has a paper copy of their essay, for instance, when others are comfortable editing on their own computers. Everyone's different, so it makes perception to try many of these strategies until you come across the a person that's the right fit. Listed here are two or three.
Unlock Content
Over 35,000 lessons in all major subjects
Get 100 percent free entry for 5 days, just develop an account.
No obligation, cancel anytime.
Select a subject to preview related courses:
If working with a computer, use your word processor's spell checker and grammar checker before you proofread. Make sure to report each individual correction individually, however, as your computer doesn't always have perfect grammar or understand a certain spelling in an unfamiliar context.
Scan your essay again to yourself. Should you check out your essay aloud, the small errors you could very well normally glaze over suddenly pop out at you. If you're in the room that should be quiet (like a tests center), just look at quietly less than your breath so as not to disturb your classmates.
Read through your essay backward. If reading aloud isn't your style, try reading your essay from the bottom up, opening with the last sentence belonging to the last paragraph and working your way backward. This way, you take absent the context of your sentences and will need to appearance at just about every individually.
Figure out the variations of errors you typically make, and proofread for 1 error in a time. For instance, in case you tend mess up 'their,' 'they're' and 'there' a lot, glance for this type of error in the paper very first. Or in case you have trouble with commas and semicolons, go through your paper and just check these punctuation marks. Make sure your tenses don't shift, that kind of stuff. Correcting for an individual error in a time makes it easier to not become overwhelmed and will make you a extra efficient proofreader. Once you've covered the mistakes that usually trip you up, do a final general proofread for anything you may have missed.
Don't forget to proofread your changes. You may think you're concluded with your proofreading, but if you've made any significant revisions - say you study your paper aloud and didn't like a particular section so you changed it - don't forget to proof these changes too. I'd be pretty embarrassed to count the variety of times I've revised a piece of producing only to see some error crop up within a section I'd rewritten merely because I was too lazy to proofread it.
Lesson Summary
Proofreading is the final step on the editing operation, where you correct for typos, spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes. Should you don't proofread, you risk letting errors into your job that ruin your credibility and all the hard function you put into your essay. Pick the strategy that is effective for you, as well as trying to identify the kinds of errors you usually make, then proofreading for them one particular by a single, reading your essay backward and/or reading the essay aloud. Don't forget to step absent from your essay for awhile before proofreading if doable, so you'll have a fresher perspective in case you come again to it.
Lesson Aim
After watching this lesson, you should be able to describe and interpret different proofreading strategies for ones personal essays.
Earning College Credit
Did you know… We have over 79 college courses that prepare you to definitely earn credit by exam that could be accepted by over two,000 colleges and universities. You are able to take a look at out of your first of all two years of college and save thousands off your degree. Anyone can earn credit-by-exam regardless of age or education stage.
Transferring credit to the school of your choice
Not sure what college you desire to attend yet? Study.com has thousands of articles about every imaginable degree, area of study and career path that can help you pick the school that's right for you.
Research Schools, Degrees & Careers
Get the unbiased info you would like to pick the right school.
Browse Articles By Category where to buy a research paper|