What are the 12 tips for proofreading academic work?

This final chapter on editing and proofreading focuses specifically on the skill of proofreading, providing students with the twelve most important pieces of advice for creating a well-proofread academic assignment. Remember that unlike editing, proofreading is the final stage of the writing process, requiring a focus on the technical aspects of writing such as formatting, layout, spelling, grammar and sentence structure. Once you’ve finished reading the following twelve tips, you may then wish to unlock and download our beginner-, intermediate- and advanced-level worksheets to check your understanding of this topic.

1. Edit thoroughly first

Proofreading is the last phase of the writing process and should only be attempted once you’ve finished writing and have fully edited your document. It would be a waste of time to correct typos or grammar mistakes if you’re only going to delete that paragraph or rewrite those sentences anyway. A good academic tutor will provide you with content feedback first for editorial purposes at the body paragraph or plan stage, usually only providing you with technical feedback after you’ve submitted your final draft. 

2. Don’t proofread at the last minute

Although proofreading happens last, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still dedicate a considerable amount of time to doing it correctly. Depending on the length of your document, proofreading can take a considerable amount of time and should ideally be done numerous times and over numerous days. Try to complete your assignment at least a week before the final deadline and dedicate that last week to applying careful proofreading processes. You’ll not only feel less stressed by doing so, but you’ll proofread more carefully and thoroughly too.

3. Print your document

One very useful piece of advice is to print out a copy (or two) of your document. For some reason, the human brain has a tendency to ignore the same mistakes time and again, reading what it believes to be written rather than what’s actually there. Printing your document changes the textual display, tricking your brain into believing it’s reading something new. Many authors agree that more errors become noticeable once printed that couldn’t be seen on the computer screen.  

4. Read every word carefully

For proofreading to be effective, you’re going to have to read your document very carefully. Because the human brain reads text in short chunks, it’s important that you make an effort to read each word individually to spot technical errors. To do this effectively, you may wish to cover the previous and following words or read aloud to yourself. Doing so should quickly highlight any errors you’ve so far missed.

5. Proofread for one element at a time

While there are many elements that a student can proofread for such as layout, formatting, grammar, punctuation, spelling and typos, one productive method of proofreading is to read the same document multiple times, scanning for a new element with each read. This way your brain will be focussed on one particular error type, minimising distraction and improving proofreading efficacy and efficiency. 

6. Use an error-correction code

With Tip 5 in mind, you may wish to apply an error-correction code to your printed document to clarify which errors require fixing. The code that you choose can be highly personalised, using symbols, shorthand notes or a simple error-correction code. We’ve provided one such code on the following page that you may find useful. Perhaps consider using this code next time you proofread your work, identifying every error in your text with a code that signals later improvements: