I thought this podcast was very helpful and reassuring to me. She points out that human error is inevitable, no matter how much you proofread; you could still submit a paper with a mistake. I tried all 4 of her tips on different writings I have done.
Her first tip was to read your paper backwards, tried it, couldn’t do it. I keep relating back to the old myth that if you listen to your records backwards, some sort of satanic message would come across.
I read my work out loud, that is something I have always done. I did find a couple errors like writing a word twice, but I found it hard to find punctuation errors.
I am not sure if it is the glare on the computer or just the constant staring at the screen, but I did find a couple errors in spelling once I printed out my paper.
And last but not least, I walked away. I think if I am trying too hard to find errors, I won’t find them. Once I rested my eyes, I came back.
For me, the hardest part about proofreading is the punctuation; I still get confused when to use a comma, semi colon, etc….but, I have made some improvement since I started this class.
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