Proofreading tips?

[elektra]

Does anyone have specific tips on the best way to proofread or edit documents?
I am not great at this, even though it is not an insignificant portion of my job. I am working on a project now where I have to review a bunch of legal documents :dizzy: and when I try to skim, it just does not sink in.
Or even outside of legal documents, how do you read articles (blog posts, whitepapers) and notice errors? Even just proofing emails- I hit send and then I only notice typos when someone responds.
I have also never been good at skim reading books, like novels. I have to really take my time to have it all sink in.
Luckily I have editors and real lawyers who have final review on things but I feel like I could be doing a better job for my portion of things.

I have heard that if you ready something sentence by sentence backwards, it can help you spot typos, but that doesn't always make sense to do.

[ellies mom]

I have found that printing it up and reading it out loud really helps a lot. For some reason I miss more when it is on the screen versus paper. And reading out loud helps find the awkward bits.

As far as skimming what you are trying to read, I've always been a fast reader so I can't help much there.

[hillview]

Printing helps. I also sometimes read it aloud which REALLY helps.

[Neatfreak]

I do the same; skimming kind of defeats the purpose of proofing, you know?

[cvanbrunt]

Yup. Print a hard copy and read it out loud slowly and deliberately.

[Momit]

Reading a printed copy vs. on screen really helps me, too. Even with DH's scientific papers, which I always get stuck proofing even though the content all sounds like mumbo-jumbo to me.

[larig]

Have your computer's text to talk read it to you as you edit/read it.

[kristenk]

I think that if you're really trying to proofread or edit something, you need to take your time. You can't skim it or you'll miss the mistakes that you're trying to find.

Printing it out or reading it aloud work pretty well.

[Kindra178]

Printing is the only way for me. It's total waste of paper, but I save it for my kids for drawing/painting in the other side. Also, when proofing, make sure you are not reading or skimming, but go word by word, line by line. Touch each word with your pen. You will be able to catch so much more this way. When reading, especially stuff I wrote, it's very easy for the brain to insert missing words.

[Puddy73]

When I'm proofing documents I have to print out a hard copy. I read it with a pen in hand and drag the pen over each word as I read to slow myself down. Frequent breaks to stretch and look away are also helpful. I've tried reading backwards but it never helped me.

[lizzywednesday]

Printing helps. I also sometimes read it aloud which REALLY helps.

:yeahthat:

I'm a quasi-editor (of legal materials, no less!) and I found printing & reading out loud to be invaluable. I am also a big fan of the red pen to circle things I need to check and small sticky notes to make sure I go back later and check them.

You may not always have time to do it, but I found skimming for meaning once helped me figure out context and appropriateness errors a lot more easily than handling words as a string of letters.

When dealing with legalese, I found Black's Law Dictionary to be a huge help, especially when I'm hit with a lot of pro se cases and have the urge to change all the "pro"'s to "per"'s. Another great resource for me was the Bluebook, which primarily deals with citation formats, from parenthetical references to standard forms of statutes.

If you have access to a law school library, many publishers also offer legal writing pamphlets or short books; mine did at one time (I believe it's currently out of print) and it was a small book consisting of about 120 pages' worth of basic writing and proofing advice. If I'd read it before working on it, I'd have found it very useful!

Lastly, grammar guides are all over the internet, but I know quite a lot of people who get by on a combination of having read The Elements of Style, Eats, Shoots, and Leaves and, strangely enough, The Great Typo Hunt.

Good luck!

[twowhat?]

I change the reading view on my computer. So in Word if I'm working in normal view, I change it to the reading pane. Other things along the same lines that work are to zoom in or out (so read the text larger or smaller than you normally do), changing the font completely, changing font color, etc. Reading aloud helps too. Though the thing that helps the most for me is to not look at it for a day and then read it with fresh eyes the next morning.

Of course, this is coming from a writer who had a typo in her resignation letter. So maybe I'm not the best one to ask:)

[lizzywednesday]

I change the reading view on my computer. So in Word if I'm working in normal view, I change it to the reading pane. Other things along the same lines that work are to zoom in or out (so read the text larger or smaller than you normally do), changing the font completely, changing font color, etc. Reading aloud helps too. Though the thing that helps the most for me is to not look at it for a day and then read it with fresh eyes the next morning.

Of course, this is coming from a writer who had a typo in her resignation letter. So maybe I'm not the best one to ask:)

Typo or not, if your eyes start to cross every time you read something, you need to put it down.

It'll depend on you how long that downtime needs to be, but the advice to look at it again with "fresh eyes" is fabulous.

Sometimes I have to put things down for a couple of days or else I miss too much.

[hollybloom24]

print, read out loud and read backwards (helps find typos or misplaced punctuation).

[spunkybaby]

Print out a hard copy and use a ruler to go line by line.

[kijip]

Read it line by line from the bottom up on a printed copy.

Then reread it aloud once you have made your first round of corrections.

I don't care about mistakes in grammar and punctuation and typos in email or whatnot, but I am completely obsessive with my outgoing grants and fundraising materials. Proofing your own writing is always harder than proofing someone else's work since your eyes trick you into seeing what you think you wrote. Working up the page backwards is the best way to solve that problem.

[elektra]

Thanks everyone! I didn't realize so many people printed stuff out. I am pretty much paperless but I will have to try printing. And maybe give myself permission to slow down a bit. And I guess it's two things I am looking for- grammar/spelling/typos (for either my own work or for something I am proofing internally) or for actual content- whether it meets the standards/guidelines I need it to or not. In both cases maybe just printing out and not skimming will help.

The thing is I have been getting by just fine, but I know that if I could refine this specific skill I would end up saving time in the long run and just doing a better overall job. :)

[nupe]

I'm another one who has to see things on paper. I can't tell you the number of things I 've signed off on after viewing on a computer screen only to find the most egregious and funny errors when looking at the paper copy later!