In this vein, today I replied to a post of a writer about the woes of proofreading. The upshot being "who'd have thought we can make so many mistakes in one manuscript" ? Especially given that we are writers and as such we are usually the types who take pride in our use of language, grammar, etc. However the fact is that no matter how careful we are, we usually become word blind to our own work. Our brains recall what we have written and finish the sentence for us a fraction of a second before our eyes scan the actual text. It means we make oversights and assumptions about our own work. On the bright side, our brains do us this favour with the work of others too, and we are prone to overlooking their small and sparse errors likewise.
I'm particularly guilty of this. Unlike many bloggers I often don't leave my posts to simmer and proofread again before publishing. The fact is that I rarely have time to go back to them and so it's often now or never. Even worse, many of my posts are written on the fly via whichever handy little device I have with me at the time. Equally, unless it is a blog aimed at self-promotion or a business type post, I understand the hint of humanity my mistakes afford me. I know! What a poor example I am to others right? I admit I deserve many lashings with a heavy bound book for my oversight in this respect in my blogs! On the other hand, I intentionally write in a relaxed manner, I project my voice in a casual way as I would in conversation, because I am reaching out and connecting with you, the reader. I'm not perfect, I don't want you to expect me to be within this blog. This is perhaps a sticking point, because I always advise other writers and bloggers to proofread their work! Hahaha the irony. On the other hand, part of my work is that of proofreading and/or copy editing the work of others. Suddenly the perfectionist in me rears it's ugly head and my red pen becomes your biggest nemesis, and just like when the teacher marked your work at school, the angry colour of the ink is usually enough to make anybody eeek. Just kidding, I work increasingly on screen these days ;-)
With my proofreading head on, I am often asked by others how they can turn out less errors, proofread their work themselves with confidence, achieve the kind of copy a pro publisher would approve of ? Baring in mind your word-blindness to your own text, there is no fool-proof method. But there are easy steps you can take to improve your proofreading skills :
- Cover your manuscript with paper, revealing a sentence at a time as you read. This will slow you down when reading the text and give you a continual reminder to pay attention. Simply scanning text, which is what we tend to do when we are familiar with content is our biggest downfall when it comes to trying to find errors. You can apply this method on screen too, or better still load the document onto a tablet and read it as if it's book / on paper, again applying paper or a ruler to cover text as you go.
- After an initial proofread, be prepared to be extremely systematic in your reading approach. If you are not time-served and experienced at proofreading, make a note of the things you need to check on every page. Keep referring to that list to ensure you checked for everything enabling you to leave no stone unturned.
- Don't try to proofread when you are tired, or bored with the text you have written. Yes, we all get sick of seeing our own work and become keen for it to end at times. Walk away from your manuscript and come back to it when you feel motivated. This is a must. You will be even more inclined to let your brain fill in the gaps as you read if you aren't eager and alert.
- Practice your proofreading skills on other samples of text before trying to proofread your own. It will give you an idea of how keen your eye is and areas you need to pay more attention to when proofreading your own draft.
- Accept that you will need to undertake more than one proofread of your manuscript / text. Twice is an absolute minimum, three or four times is more likely. The final proofread should be after your work has been set out for publishing. At this stage errors which are minor but will affect layout and cause a lot of work to realign etc are likely to be best overlooked unless it changes meaning. The assumption at this stage is that errors should be few and far between, if at the point of formatting the work is still littered with errors, it isn't ready for the publication process, in print or digitally.
In the publishing world, professional proofreaders are accustomed to making judgement calls on whether to correct errors after typesetting / formatting. Often we are given guidelines on cost, we make comparisons to the original text in order to establish if the error is that of the typesetter (the correction becoming their expense) or the writer / publisher (the publisher having to pay for that correction). We make decisions based on whether a simple change to a word / spelling etc will generate surplus work when in fact the reader will not lose the essence of the text. When working with self-publishing authors discussions are had along the same lines, and decisions are based on whether they can reformat work themselves or will have to send the text back out to an E-Publisher. It is for this reason that we as writers will often spot small but sparse errors throughout a book and wonder why it wasn't corrected ? Now you know. Equally, proofreading isn't just about spelling and grammar. It is also about style and consistency.
Here is a short list of the main things which need to be checked if you want to check your work like a publishing pro:
- Spelling and Grammar - Don't rely on spell checkers and digital technology to find these errors. Remember that we have to make decisions on whether we use americanised spelling of certain words or not, and ensure we are consistent with this approach. Also remember that a spell checker will not identify if you have used your and you're incorrectly for example. For this reason in itself proofreading is a manual job.
- Flow - Ensure that the text flows and makes sense as you read. Make notes where it doesn't and decide on the best course to correct this.
- Hyphenation / Capitalisation etc - Again ensure the use of hyphenation and capitalisation is consistent throughout the text.
- Facts and Information - Check your facts as you read. Are names consistent and dates correct for example ?
- Layout - The most obvious example of this would be to point out that all tables need to be styled in the same way. Page margins differ on odd and even pages, are these correct ? Ensure that approach to layout of "speech" is approached consistently in layout throughout the text i.e. Do you hyphenate or not ?
- Font - Look for changes in font style and size. Also ensure that numbers and Roman Numerals are the same font and style throughout the work.
- Page Numbers - Check they flow as they should. This is especially important at final proofread.
- Chapters and Titles - Check for consistency. Again especially important at final proofread.
- Will changes affect layout ? If so what is the cost in terms of time ? In monetary value ? In loss of understanding to the reader ? In overall quality of the text ? This is most applicable after formatting / layout / typesetting has been completed.
Proofreading on a regular basis helps ensure that these are skills which start to come naturally to us. In the meantime it's a good idea to check each page systematically for each element as you go. It will ultimately mean that you have read the text multiple times, however you can rest assured that so would a publishing house if they were taking responsibility for the quality of your work. Finally, track your changes, and keep copies of those notes and original documents. You will be surprised how often you might need to compare against former texts when making proofreading and editing decisions, especially if you plan to outsource some of the proofreading / editing / publishing tasks.
Many a reader will vouch for the fact that they have read books where in essence the story was great but they felt that the 'quality' let them down. Quite often these are issues of copy editing and proofreading prior to final draft. Our audiences are often avid readers, they have become accustomed to the standards of the publishing-for-print world. The best way to avoid disappointment is to meet their expectations and ensure you publish like a pro !
