Why Proofreading Matters
Your writing leaves an impression. Readers will come away from your work feeling informed, entertained, inspired, even moved.
Or will they?
Proofreading might not be the heart and soul of the writing process but it is an essential element.
When I was in high school and even during my early college days, I wrote papers and turned them in without giving them so much as a second glance. No revisions, no editing, and no proofreading. Often my papers came back marked up, and the markings almost always pointed out grammar, spelling, and punctuation rules that I already knew – but because I hadn’t bothered proofreading, I’d accidentally broken the rules and turned in an unpolished piece of writing.
The Value of Proofreading
In time, I learned the value of proofreading, but it was a lesson that did not arrive in the form of essays hatched with red markups. I learned the value of proofreading as a reader.
The first time I caught a typo in a novel, I felt smug. I thought myself quite smart to have found a mistake that the author had missed. Later, when I understood that each novel is reviewed by a copyeditor, I felt even more smug when I’d find errors in the text of books or articles. Not only had the writer missed the mistake, the editors had too!
I also noticed that each error was a speed bump, which interrupted the flow of my reading. I’d be enjoying the story and all of a sudden, a blatant misspelling would throw me off course, and I’d be yanked out of the tale.
That was enough for me to develop a careful practice of proofreading everything. When people read my work, I don’t want them to pause to contemplate the rules of grammar. I want the reading to flow smoothly and totally uninterrupted.
The Lack of Proofreading
I’ve learned that in the world of blogging, proofreading is sorely lacking – and it’s easy to tell when a blogger doesn’t understand the rules of proper English or is simply being careless. In some cases, the work contains information that can’t be gotten elsewhere, so the value of the content overrides the necessity of good grammar. In other cases, the material is so riveting and entertaining, minor mistakes are easily forgiven.
Some readers will ignore these grammatical hiccups. Others won’t notice them at all. But there will always be those few who are so completely turned off by an error-riddled piece of work that they’ll simply stop reading whatever you publish. Is that a harsh reaction on the reader’s part? Maybe. But if your work is so peppered with mistakes that it’s actually difficult to read, then why would anyone waste their time?
As writers, and especially as bloggers who produce tons of written material on any given day, week, or month, it’s nearly impossible to hire a professional proofreader to check every single thing we publish, and no matter how carefully you proofread, chances are that a few typos will slip through over time. But if you aren’t proofreading at all, and your writing is weighted down with grammatical mistakes, you’re sending readers a message that you don’t care very much about your work or the impression that it leaves.
Your Proofreading Habits
I’ll leave off with a few questions that you can ask yourself about your own proofreading habits. Feel free to share your responses in the comments section or simply share your thoughts about proofreading, grammar, and typos (or lack thereof).
- Do you proofread every piece of writing that you submit, share, or publish?
- How many times do you proofread a piece?
- How careful is your proofreading? Do you do a quick scan or a careful review?
Remember, proofreading leads to better writing, so be sure to make it an elemental part of your own writing process.
If you have any proofreading tips to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.
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AAAAAAAAAh! Proofreading! I just spent all day proofreading. I spend days and days editing. Day in, day out. Rereading. Every time I go in to trim down something, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. I am terrible. I could edit ’til I die. I will edit ’til I die. I am a perfectionist, but I am not sure if I am perfecting or making it worse. Who knows? I’d like to think I am making improvements.
ScreenwritingforHollywoods last blog post..The Un-Merry Go Round in Fear
Yep, sometimes we get caught in a nasty cycle during revisions – constantly trying to make our writing better and better. I’ve heard it said that a piece of writing is never quite finished but at some point the writer has to let it go and send it out into the world…
Hi Melissa. Ahhh, this was music to my ears! I’ve been a proofreader for, oh… more than 10 years. It’s a hard habit to break. I read through my posts at least 3 times. Then before I hit that publish button I hesitate and tune in to that “spidey sense”, just in case there might be a horribly embarrassing typo hiding somewhere. I think proofreading is boring to some people and many can’t be bothered to take the time. For me, it’s second nature and I don’t mind at all. PS. I didn’t proofread this comment — it’s almost 1 am and I’m about to visit dreamland. Thanks for this post.
Davinas last blog post..Self Help Me
Hi Davina. When I first started blogging, I’d find the occasional typo in my posts and be absolutely horrified. Over time, I’ve learned to relax – when you’re self publishing several times a week, you can’t hire a professional proofreader and there are times when those little mistakes simply slip past. I’ve had readers and even the occasional client point out typos and while it’s always embarrassing, I have come to realize that writers are only human. I try to proofread my posts 2-3 times before hitting publish but sometimes I’m in a hurry or I’m tired. Other times, I just don’t catch every single one, which is why I often go back through old posts and fix them up
Hi Melissa! I’ve grown to become more anal about proofreading, and I know I make mistakes, there are some little things I don’t know in reference to grammar. I hate rules–especially in story construction or what people believe is supposed to be good–but punctuation is either right or wrong. I made a mistake for years: using “it’s” as the possessive form of “it”, while “its” is possessive. Thankfully, a very nice fellow writer pointed out my mistake and I was extremely thankful.
On the other hand, I love breaking rules as in using sentence fragments, but I see them much like a jazz musical phrase–where rules actually kill the originality. I proofread several times. It’s so funny, I often find mistakes after publishing . . . LOL! Some mistakes are purposeful. I often leave out and, the, or, but and so forth making a sentence theoretically incorrect–but in essence is more than correct in terms of purity and creativity. Great post!
Bobby Revells last blog post..Voodoo Bellydancer – Mindcraft Ingression
Hi Bobby! I break the rules all the time. My favorite rule to break is starting sentences with conjunctions. Even as a kid, I thought it was a silly rule but now I see that it’s a good rule because when you break it there’s a little extra impact. I was taught that if you learn all the rules, then (and only then) can you break them effectively and I find that to be true, so I’ve become an eternal student of good grammar. During my first year as a freelance writer, I spent many hours pouring over grammar and style guides (often looking up comma placement). Luckily, I enjoy research and learning so it’s all good
Not all writers are fans of following the rules of grammar and some don’t care at all but it’s part of the package and one of the basic writing skills we need if we want to produce polished, readable work.
I have to admit that I am constantly irked by those little errors that got by me the first time. From time to time I’ll go back to read over an old blog entry and cringe at a simple error. HOW did that little bugger pass? I DO proofread, at least three times every single post I write, still, sometimes those pesky errors slip through.
I console myself by acknowledging how many errors I did find before I clicked the publish button. There is no such thing as a perfect first draft. Real writing is in the rewriting.
One place I’ve noticed many people don’t proof read is their comments, forum posts, and email. And, even worse, JOB LISTINGS! How many job listings have I scrolled through and seen error after error. I swear, it makes me want to offer my writing and editing services.
Aren’t those little errors annoying? I always wonder how they slip by – and sometimes they do even when I’ve proofread numerous times. I once heard that the writer’s mind knows how a sentence should read and will therefore see the material as correct even if it isn’t. One mistake I make repeatedly is leaving out small words (like a, an, the) and when I review a piece, I guess my mind knows those words should be there so it tells me they’re there. It’s more difficult to proofread comments because there are so many blogs to read every day and so many comments to leave – I guess I just find typos and errors in comments more forgivable
I know exactly what you mean about the carelessness and often utter sloppiness of so many blog writers. I have only about 15 blogs that I track frequently, and I see daily at least a handful of totally sloppy errors. I tend to forgive kind-of tricky or subtle grammatical errors or the often totally subjective realm of appropriate comma usage, but when I see totally obvious mistakes – basic noun-verb agreement, missing full stops, it’s showing possession of the thing “it” – it just makes my skin crawl.
I read a blog post somewhere a while ago, I can’t remember where, where the poster lamented about the overall decline of the English language being driven by the open, collaborative media forms of the latest generation of web technology. As newspaper readership continues to decline, and blog readership is growing every day, who will be the guardian of our language?
Hi William. I once took a class on the history and structure of the English language, and that taught me a lot about how language changes and evolves over time. My guess is that with advent of the Internet and related technologies, our language is going to undergo some extreme modifications. Just the other day I found myself reading a blog that contained instructions on word usage and grammar – and the information was blatantly incorrect! I couldn’t believe it! Someone was actually publishing grammar tips that were just plain wrong. I don’t know what we can do about that. The French are very strict about preserving their language and keeping it intact but I’m not sure that’s the way to go – almost like force feeding it to the population and not letting it evolve naturally. It’s a great discussion!
It’s really embarrassing when you act like a SpellingNazi and then find mistakes that you yourself have made. I really hate spelling and grammar errors, yet no one is immune. I generally proof read at least 3x with every post and still they manage to slip through.
Some of the ones I see frequently, and try to be vigilant about with my own writing, are omitting the “r” on your: “Check you coat and hat at the door.” And the “e” in breathe: We take a breath, and we breathe in and out. They’re, their, and there can just take the place of each other in my typing without vigilance because they’re triplets or something. Errors for tense and singular/plural are rampant, partly because of poor sentence diagramming lessons or inability to identify an antecedent? Does anyone care about this stuff any more?
I think texting, peer expectations and lingo have a lot to do with it. We know college grads who rarely capitalize or punctuate in emails. Maybe they’ll grow out of it. Surely they are required by academia and employers to write well?
Betsy Wuebkers last blog post..PLAY OFFENSE WITH YOUR LIFE’S WORK
Betsy, I couldn’t agree more. When I first started this blog, there were times I’d catch a mistake on an old or published post and think “Here I am with my writing blog and look at that ridiculous mistake I published!” But it happens to all of us. Also, there’s a definite difference between a typo and not knowing the rules of grammar. If I spell “the” as “teh,” you’ll probably guess it’s just a typo, but if I misuse a semicolon or use “its” where “it’s” should be, you’ll think I don’t know my business
I say we should all keep trying to learn the rules and practice better proofreading habits. Yes, texting and instant messaging are probably having a negative impact on grammar and no, I don’t think academia and employers are requiring people to write well.
I proofread everything but email. Sometimes when I’ve looked at something for too long, I know I’m missing forest through the trees, so I’ll ask someone else to look at it as well. It’s anal, but necessary, I believe. To counter this, my emails are super duper breezy.
Writer Dads last blog post..SEO Content? Maybe…
You’re lucky Writer Dad! In my past employment and certainly in my current business, I’ve had to produce extremely crisp email communications, especially when dealing with clients and customers, so I have developed a habit of anally reviewing emails. In fact, there are times when I proofread emails more than I do blog posts. I guess it’s a good habit but rather time consuming
I do proofread. However, like the average writer, it is frequently difficult to pick up on my own errors because my brain knows what I was thinking about and inserts it surreptitiously. Reading aloud and forcing myself to only read the words on the page helps but still isn’t fool-proof.
Have I mentioned that homophones drive me crazy? This is irritating because spelling is one thing I’m really good at in general but typing the fingers will often revert to the most frequently used form regardless of the context; especially the words to, too, and two.
Deb, you’re one of the bloggers who consistently produces clean, polished work. I never catch typos in your posts or emails and I get the sense that you have a special and rare mastery over the rules of grammar. I actually like homophones, especially in poetry because you can have some fun with word play, but they do cause a lot of mistakes for many writers.
Hi Melissa: Sometimes I publish posts really late at night and even though I think I’ve checked them properly for flow and spelling, one or two mistakes (OK, let’s call them typos) get past me. I reread my posts the next day and correct these mistakes. I have unsubscribed from blogs where the author uses poor grammar or where the writing is riddled with spelling errors; it’s distracting and I don’t want to pick up any bad habits (hey, if you can learn great writing by reading great authors, I’m sure the opposite is also true).
Marelisas last blog post..Blog Business Plan – Monetization
Marelisa, that happens to me too – it’s hard to catch every single mistake when you’re publishing several times a week! I also have to admit that I’ve unsubscribed from blogs that were fraught with errors – but there are many others that are so good, I stay subscribed despite typos and other mistakes because the content is truly more important to me than the mechanics of grammar.
Great points,
Must admit I posted a blog post w/o proofreading and then discovered quite a few “bugs”.
I felt bad about it, i pretended what a reader would think of me. Not a very shiny mental image come to my mind…
Thanks for stressing it.
One of the great things about blogs is that you can always go back and edit if you find a mistake later. Sometimes I even go through old post and do minor rewrites to make a post sound better than it originally did. I know a lot of bloggers believe in keeping past content completely intact but I don’t really see a necessity for that
I agree with Bobby Levell and Deb about some things they mentioned. I break some rules on purpose, specifically spelling ones since I enjoy creating words. I also ignore other rules that have specific names that I don’t know or remember what they are called. Syntax is probably one of them. Whenever I’m questioned about it, I tell them I’m a card carrying poet (using my poetic license). But most of my writing, especially on my blog, is written as if I’m actually speaking. That goes for comments on blogs, and a lot of things I write. And who speaks in perfect English all the time?
I miss my own typos all the time too. Whenever I publish a blog post, it’s emailed to me and a few others… that’s when I catch them. I liked the advice I read about publishing the next day when you can re-read and revise with a clear rested mind… but some posts are time sensitive and I’m writing in the moment.
But I understand and know most of these rules and apply them in the professional sense when needed. I’m regularly called upon to proofread and edit. As good as I am, it still confuses people how I managed to get a C average throughout my high school and college classes. Two words: research papers.
Isn’t poetic license a wonderful thing? It’s funny how the way we speak and the way we’re supposed to write are so different from each other. I find that the way we listen and the way we read are also different and I think that difference is why we apply the rules of grammar to our writing – doing so essentially makes our work more readable. There’s also something to be said for consistency in the written works of a culture and grammar is an integral part of that though the many different style guides definitely confuse matters.
As a copy editor, I know full well the importance of proofreading. Consequently, I don’t write or publish anything without having it proofread. Luckily, I’m married to a professional proofreader, so I can outsource rather cheaply. I have her read over everything: blog posts, IMs, tweets, etc.
I’ve had 3 errors pointed out to me in the past year, so it’s working out pretty well.
I recommend having someone else proofread for you if at all possible. It’s much harder to do with your own writing.
John Roachs last blog post..Guest post: The power of language and how to hone it
Only three errors in a whole year? That’s pretty good! It’s definitely best to have someone else do the proofreading. When we proof our own work we tend to read it as correct even if it isn’t. You’re lucky to have an in-house proofreader
For my blog entries, generally I proofread each post once. However, often I proofread AFTER I hit “publish”. I then read the post and hit “edit” when necessary. It’s like I’m counting on people to not read that post yet in those five minutes. A lot of times, though, FeedBurner already grabbed that article from the feed. Oh well, it doesn’t really bother me that much. I generally don’t proofread my comments.
When I read blog posts, I generally don’t care if there are mistakes. I would notice them from time to time, but I wouldn’t remember that it’s there a few seconds later.
I feel more smug when I spot discontinuities in TV shows. For example, once on a crime-solving police procedural show, the detectives said they are going to swab the person for DNA sample, while earlier in the episode they’ve already obtained it from the rape kit. Got to be more careful there…
Kelvin Kaos last blog post..Between the Lions: My Once (Now Second) Favorite PBS Show
I don’t really proofread comments because there are just too many of them. I use “preview” to proof posts one final time before hitting publish and even then, sometimes I have to go back after publishing to make another adjustment. My biggest problem is typing too fast – makes for lots of typos! Once I made a typo in a blog post title and it was forever stuck in FeedBurner – ugh – still irks me to this day.
I’m so happy to read this post — I’m an incurable proofreader. I definitely proofread my blog posts and all freelance projects.
There’s a blogger who writes only about freelance writing and consistently makes mistakes and typos in e-mails and blog posts. I unsubscribed, because it was just too clearly lazy on that blogger’s part — showing us a post about freelance writing as a career, and not even bothering to proof the post?
On another note, typos can be fun! I regularly find amusement here in Thailand. Most recently was a sign on a bathroom door: “Out, Of, Order”.
Zoes last blog post..Reclaim Your Dreams: An Uncommon Guide to Living on Your Own Terms
Ah, I proofread my freelance projects even more than I do my blog.
There’s also a top copywriter who supposedly makes hundreds of thousands a year and that person’s blog was absolutely covered in mistakes – what appear to be both typos and bad grammar. I unsubscribed too, because I was wasting too much time wondering how someone whose writing was so poor could make that much money – or if the amount of money stated wasn’t true (which is likely).
You’re right though – sometimes typos and other accidentals produce interesting lines. I find that especially true with poetry writing
I opened my e-mail this morning and found this article and laughed. Not becuase I don’t think proof reading is important, but because I just finished reading the new edition of the newspaper I’m the editor and found it riddled with typos, mixed up cutlines and ads that weren’t in color and should have been. befoore it went to press I found six or seven mistakes that shouldn’t have made it past the proof readers.
It was more of an ironic thing I guess. It made my day, though.
I will be sharing with the members of my staff the importance of proofreading rather than just breezing over an article. I’ll probably make the proofreaders suffer through retraining on how to properly proofread.
Doesn’t it seem like there are more mistakes in published works today than there were in the past? Sometimes I blame it on the schools not teaching proper grammar. Other times, I think we’re just getting lazy or maybe publishers (including newspapers) aren’t as picky about who they hire. Or maybe I just notice the mistakes more than I did when I was younger… In any case, I think it’s good that you’re going to retrain your proofreaders. After all, that is their job.
I am a voracious proofreader! Since I make my living by writing and proofing, I’ve trained my eyes to catch grammatical errors everywhere (sometimes this is not a good thing). But I can’t stress the importance of proofreading — especially in something as timeless as a manuscript or magazine. And I totally agree with John R.: Have someone ELSE proof your work. You’ll be surprised by how much you miss.
I actually think that revisions are pretty fun – proofreading too because it means a piece is close to being finished (always a good feeling!). I have to agree that proofreading is especially essential for manuscripts and magazines because you can’t go back and edit once they’ve been printed. Blogs and other online publications offer a little more flexibility but it’s still important to produce polished work.
The thing with me is I can proofread a blog post several times and still miss stuff. Then when I publish it and see it published, it all jumps out at me! I go in and fix what I notice. I may not be perfect, but I sure hope my writing isn’t so horrific that it turns readers off!
*smiles*
Michele
Micheles last blog post..Guest Post: Rebecca’s Long Road To Writing
Oh yes, that does happen. It’s like no matter how many times you read it or how carefully, one nasty little typo is bound to slip through. The only way I know to ensure that doesn’t happen is to let a piece sit overnight or even for a day or two before proofreading. I find that I catch more mistakes that way, and I always do that with client work.
I must confess, in everything except my blog and when I write online, I am very caring in my grammar. For some reason in this way writing online, seems to have lost some impact and seems not to carry the full attributes of when I write in the rest of my life.
It was pointed out to me a while ago, that some of my Blogs have been riddled with mistakes. Whilst I have tried to rectify this, I still often find myself typing away and posting blindly, without having a re-read before posting Blogs, or comments.
Proof reading is important but like it says here http://writerdad.com/blogging/reading-online/ There is a big difference between books and the real world, and reading online.
Charlies last blog post..Celebration Day
Hi Charlie, thanks for sharing your thoughts. You are not alone in being less strict with proofreading and grammar on your blog, as there are many bloggers who are focused on generating tons of content and are more concerned with getting posts produced and published than with the actual quality of the posts.
The problem with this is that the more grammar mistakes that are published in print or online, the more they will spread through society (yes, just like a disease). I think readers can tell when a writer/blogger takes great care with his work. What Sean (Writer Dad) is talking about in his post is reading, not writing. He’s saying that we scan text when we read online, and my take on his post was that we should read more closely, not less.
In a recent post here on Writing Forward, When Writers Blog, I talked about how many writers felt blogs were for hacks and writers who don’t take their work seriously. I feel that by producing quality content, which is proofread and polished, we writers and bloggers can show the world that the writer makes the blog, and not the other way around
Melissa,
I would agree with you that Sean was advocating that online materials warrant better quality of reading. Although my habits in online reading make me care less about when I write?! Maybe, it is a large assumption and I rarely like to assume anything as it always leads to trouble.
The way I saw this post was a reassertion of the fact in general most people care a lot less about online material compared to that of hard copy.
Which is why as an ex-journalist for certain online music publications that I decided that I should try and come up with a more community and project based blog, rather than be sneered at for my writing. Though at the moment, my blog, it is all rather about me.*
(*Random self reflection)
In summary though, I thank you for the reminder to upkeep a certain level of grammar and correctness in what I write, as a member of a society that I’d rather not see descend into txt tlk.
Charlies last blog post..Celebration Day
Charlie, I find that people will sneer at just about any type of writing – it’s too literary or not literary enough, too tight or too loose, too formal or too casual. It’s impossible to please everyone, so I think the best approach is to try and please yourself, then find an audience and please them too. I have to admit that when I first started blogging, I didn’t proofread my posts very carefully, and even now, there are times I’m in a hurry and a mistake or two slips past, but I feel better about my blog knowing that I try to produce writing that is polished and readable. I bet you’ll feel good about that too.
You have a very good point. The film I watched tonight, Frost / Nixon, actually made a point about no matter who you are, there will always be someone ready to sneer and look down at you.
I do hope you will get involved with my conceptual Blog project. I think i have managed to find something that i am quite happy doing, and talking about.
It should only take you about 5 minutes each day. (although depends to what lengths you take it too, the zoo for Z may take you longer than 5 minutes.)
Thanks again, for taking the time to travel to and read my blog.
Charlie
Charlies last blog post..Charlie’s February Alphabet Challenge : Tips & Help
Hi Charlie, I hear that Frost Nixon is getting very positive critical reviews. However, I’m sure somewhere, there’s someone sneering at it
I’m still thinking about your project – not sure I’ll be able to participate, but I’d certainly like to follow along as an observer.
I couldn’t agree more with you on this subject! In fact, it’s one of the first elements I look for when doing a “10 things” review!
Thanks for reiterating how important this is. I have bookmarked this post and will be referring to it whenever I need to illustrate this point.
Web-Bettys last blog post..10 things: Willem’s Internet Blog
Thanks Web-Betty! I think that good grammar and the practice of proofreading will eventually become more commonplace – at least online. Right now blogs are like the Wild West, but they’ll become more civilized over time