Top 5 Tips to Choose the Best Proofreading Services
Proofreading is not necessarily the most exciting part of the writing process, but is definitely one of the most important. Letting even the most insignificantly minor errors through quality control can cost credibility. This is why you should make sure to get the best proofreading services.
Here’s our top five tips on how to make sure your proofreading is foolproof:
1. Print it out
If you have been typing and looking at the screen for the last few hours, try proofreading a hard copy. Often by reading the printed word you will be able to see things that weren’t quite so obvious before when you were chained to the monitor.
2. Read it out
Reading the text aloud helps to confirm whether the sentences really do have the required structure. Either read it aloud yourself, or get someone else to read it to you. This helps because your over-familiarity with your own work impedes your ability to see as clearly when it comes to potential errors, a third party has no bias in this respect.
3. Share the responsibility
In leading magazines and publications, articles will often go through ten rounds of proofreading by ten different journalists. Nobody would expect this from a smaller organisation, but you should certainly ask a colleague or two to proof your work once it’s done.
4. Take a break
Taking a 20-minute break before coming back to proof your document always helps. Your eyes become fresh once more, and your head is clear. It’s amazing what some fresh air and the sound of birds singing can do to revitalise the senses.
5. Read as you go
Many copywriters rely on flow. This means it’s often a case of “head down and surge through the entire piece of writing without looking at the screen”. While this is great for getting ideas out before they vanish for all eternity, it’s a proofreading nightmare. Finding the right balance between checking your work as you go, and just blasting through it at a rate of knots, is extremely important. After each paragraph, you should go back and correct any errors you see.
At 7G Media – the leading digital marketing agency in Dubai, we consider ourselves to be the frontrunners in providing editing and proofreading services in Dubai. Our clients can attest to that, please contact us for samples of our work.
