Author: admin

Reading is a mesmerizing thing. It takes you to an altogether different world. In fact, reading not only diverse your mind but has many other benefits too. A good reader has a great vocabulary and knows to read in between the lines. They can understand the author through their style of writing.

An avid reader can finish multiple books in a day and not get tired. But the best part is that reading not only enhances your skills but it can also make you a great professional proofreader. Plus, you will do what you love and earn money for it!

So, if you are a good reader you are already halfway through, and if you have decided on being a professional proofreader, here are some tips for you on how to be a better proofreader.

1. Know Your audience

The first thing as a writer, reader, or proofreader is that you should know your audience. When you know whom you are writing for, you will get a better perspective of what is written.

So, as a professional proofreader, you should know the audience that the article is written for. The age, expertise level, and knowledge of the audience matter a lot.  Once you know the audience properly, you need to read like them and then try to understand their perspective.

In brief, when you read like the audience, you will be able to proofread the article in the best way.

2. For effective proofreading, read backward

This is one skill that was a secret kept by proofreaders for a long time.

The human mind is trained to read the first and last letter of the words and then frame the sentence accordingly. So, it is general to skip ifs, buts, and many other pronouns, conjunctions, and more.

In fact, when we read a sentence, our mind sometimes reads it properly even though it may be grammatically incorrect.

Thus, to avoid this issue, proofreaders read the text backward. This lets you check the spellings and words professionally. Also, when there are pronouns and conjunctions, we can read the sentence straightforward and see if it makes sense.

But an article can be 100% accurately checked when it is proofread backward.

3. Have a professional proofreading checklist

When you plan to be a professional proofreader, you need to follow a proofreading process. Ensure to follow this checklist whenever you start the proofreading process.

Also, ensure to get all the material required from the writers for effective proofreading. 

Like, first you should know about the audience, then read the entire article, check the tone, mark the mistakes and suggestions in different colors, read backward, highlight when you like something, and so on.

You can add and edit the checklist according to the writings that you check, but ensure the skeleton remains the same.

Additionally, make a list of colors for grammar errors, sentence errors, addition or deletion of ideas, etc. This will help the writers to distinguish between your suggestions and have more clarity.

Conclusion

Now that you have planned to proofread professionally, above are the proofreading tips and tricks that will help you get there. Just follow them and you will be an efficient proofreader. Plus, it is a very interesting job. Imagine so many new things to learn and read every day!

Moreover, just remember that every writer has their own unique style and tone. Be sure not to irritate that tone or put it off course. Proofread the article in such a way that the creativity is not hampered and the idea still reaches the audience!

If you are a professional proofreader, you will require modern tools to run the written work for proofreading. The content editing tools for professional proofreaders have been known to lessen the work for them, plus, these tools are so efficient that every little error can be caught easily.

Moreover, the amount of work that proofreaders do, they certainly require help. And if you want to get the best online proofreading, you must definitely have tools that make the job easier.  Don’t you?

So, what defines the best proofreading software?

A proofreading software must intricately run through every word, punctuation mark, and structure of the sentence to ensure that it goes with the tone of the article. The best proofreading software sees to it that it check the document for the tone, number of works, delivery, and also the audience that you are writing for.

These tools are known to even check for plagiarism. You will be surprised at the type of analysis these tools perform. They even state that the structure of the sentence is wordy or too complicated to understand.

Thus, when you choose a proofreading software, ensure that you look at the aspects that it checks and then go ahead to use it.

Now, which are some of the best proofreading tools?

Some of the tools that you can use for proofreading are;

• Grammarly
• Hemingway Editor
• Edit Minion
• WordRake
• Slick Write

These are some of the best proofreading tools that content marketers use and recommend. In some organizations, the fully paid versions of the software are also available to avail of all the best services.

Though some of them are paid, all the software has basic versions available for the users. These basic versions also provide the best proofreading and grammar checks.

These tools are also the best content editing software. They will polish the content and make it appealing to the readers. They equally ensure that a single tone is maintained throughout the entire article. Also, they help in recognizing duplicate ideas and words.

But, when should one use content editing tools?

One should try and incorporate the tools in the writing process, especially while drafting and proofreading the articles. This is so, because you can write according to the suggestions and work on the changes as you write. But if are not able to incorporate it offline, you can use the online versions and polish the article.

Moreover, try to use the tools for every type of writing as you will definitely see that their use is worth it! You will notice a change in your editing levels and the article will look really appealing.

Plus, these types of software also upgrade your writing and proofreading skills from time to time.

Also if you get a job for content proofreading, it would be mandatory for you to know how to use these tools.

Are the free versions of these proofreading tools better?

Well, the paid versions provide much more checking and options for polishing the content. But the free versions do their job pretty well too. As the paid versions of these tools are on the higher price, proofreader combines manual checking with these tools to produce the best results.

And after all, everything depends on the type of checking you do and for the audience, you work for. If the audience is an expert level one, you may require to go for the paid versions to use the best language.

But seriously speaking, with combined efforts of free version and manual checking, proofreaders are able to deliver the best work. Thus, if you put in some effort, the free tools can also give the best output.

Conclusion

If you are into proofreading blogs, articles, newsletters, or even whitepapers, these tools will ensure that you do your tasks easily. The level of perfection that is achieved with these tools is impeccable.