Have you had that experience where you finish writing your piece of content whether it’s an article, book, letter, or even a text message and you read through but you notice something is off? 

That feeling you’re expecting to get from your written piece, the feeling of victory as you intend to show your writing prowess only to realize you’ve got a ton of errors laying within your content. 

I know you can resonate with the depressing feeling of doubt that your book or written content isn’t good enough or that your writing skills are still amateur due to the pool of errors that lay in your write-up. 

Well, I know for sure that feeling sucks!

That is where a particular vital process in writing comes in; Proofreading

So, what is proofreading and how do we use it in our written piece?

What is proofreading?

Proofreading consists of reviewing and correcting an original text to give it clarity, conciseness, and harmony, adding value and making it intelligible for the reader. It includes correcting the spelling, grammar, syntax, style, text formatting, and factual precision of the text, article, social media post, newspaper, or book.

This process is essential and unavoidable during the editing stages of a book or written content to detect errors and make corrections. The text of the book must be read, reread, edited, revised, and re-checked, if possible by different people, before moving on to the next stage – that is, graphic production of the book, in which the graphic designer will process it and finally move it on for print or publication. 

In addition, other aspects are reviewed, such as spaces, margins, the header and footer of the page, and non-textual elements (graphics, images, or photographs). For a good result, a minimum of two to three test corrections should be made. 

The process requires a high degree of concentration and thoroughness in reading, beginning with a global reading to detect the linguistic character of the author, and then reading paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, and finally, word by word.

Why some writers don’t proofread

At present, we observe all types of texts such as reports, including printed and digital newspapers, manuals, etc., that are poorly written or containing errors, which denotes the lack or abandonment of proofreading. 

You might ask why is it that some writers overlook this process? This is a valid question. How can a process so vital be neglected? Well, I’ll give you reasons:

• Lack of Will to Proofread

One of the reasons for the negligence is because proofreading is a thorough process that requires time, attention, and full concentration of the editor. As a result of this, some writers are not willing to put in the time and focus that is required to produce an error-free written piece. 

For this reason, we know that some writers are just cool with putting any kind of write-up out there just for the sake of doing so. But true and quality content doesn’t stop at writing, it demands editing which, in this case, is proofreading.

• Speed over Quality 

When writers focus their sole attention on the rate at which they produce content; when they concentrate on speed rather than the quality of their writing, they trade quality for speed which is dead wrong. 

Why would writers rather concentrate on the speed you might ask? This could be because they’re eager to impress their client, readers, or even themselves by producing multiple articles, books, or blog posts to get more writing gigs or beat deadlines. When it comes to this technique, nothing could be further from the truth. Don’t get me wrong, producing your article or blog posts on time is a great trait a writer should have but simply churning out content for the purpose of just being quick enough isn’t professional and by so doing you aren’t putting your readers in mind because quality content is the end goal, without it how do not expect your readers to engage with your content? 

• Aiming for the word counts 

Another sad reason why writers shun proofreading when it comes to their write-ups is that they aim for word counts only. While it is good to make sure you reach whatever number of words your book, article, the blog post is expected to be, it is imperative to make sure that your content makes sense and has the natural seamless flow it needs so that your readers can resonate with it. 

One risk that needs to be averted when trying to reach the required word count is “filling text” just so the article can seem big enough. This strategy should be avoided. 

Importance of Proofreading your write-ups

Believe it or not, this process can give you a reputation of being a professional writer, hence, it needs to be taken very seriously.

Yet not every writer takes this earnestly. 

Just to make sure we are on the same page when I say writer I don’t just mean professional writers but for everyone who writes. 

Before we delve in to see some of the benefits of proofreading, it is pertinent to state everyone who needs to know this skill called proofreading. 

They include:

• Professional writers
• Freelance writers
• Copywriters
• Content writers
• Students 
• Teachers
• Social media marketers and influencers
• Business owners and entrepreneurs
• Employers
• Every social media user
• Workers of all field

Now that we are clear on that, let us get down to the significance of this skill:

• To sound professional

One way of setting yourself apart from other writers is by effectively proofreading your write-ups every time your write. This is because readers will take you seriously when they realize that you write error-free engaging content every time.

• To be able to add value through writing

One of the various ways to contribute positively to society is by writing helpful, problem-solving content. This may be in form of a book, article, blog post. The most vital thing here is that you are adding value to the readers with your written content. 

And one other skill that will make it possible for this to happen and will go hand-in-hand with writing is Proofreading.

• To avoid embarrassment

Naturally, human beings detest embarrassment of any kind for whatsoever reason. 

Imagine sending your resume to your potential employer so that you could work at that dream job, only for your interviewer to draw your attention to the grammatical and spelling errors you made on your resume. I’m sure you know you aren’t getting that job right?

Or, imagine sending your application letter filled with errors. You know what is about to happen. That letter is going to the dumpster.

Tools Used for Proofreading

These are some tools that will come in handy when you are in the process of getting rid of errors and structuring your writing pieces:

• Grammarly
• ProWritingAid
• The human eye and sense of judgment

Conclusion

In short, proofreading is essential to guarantee the quality of an edition and makes it more pleasant to read. In other words, it is highly essential to the success of a book or written content of any kind for that matter.

Therefore it would be good for us to start applying this important process to all the writings intended for our readers to pass our message across, which is actually the end goal of the written piece of content in the first place.