Four of us huddled around one desk in the editing room for more than a half hour - after deadline. We were looking to replace a culturally insensitive phrase in an article that was to be front page “above the fold”—in other words, the main headline of the paper. We finally agreed on edits and sent the copy to print. When the newspaper hit the stands the next day, we all saw the BIG BOLD HEADLINE and its typo, the one we all had missed while our attention was focused on the text block below it. The editor was displeased.

Proofreading can be a real bear, especially if your expertise lies elsewhere. Those of us who write, edit, and proofread for a living have some tricks up our sleeves, and I thought I’d share a few of those with you today.

Print it Out if that’s Better for You: You stare at a blue screen all day, and perhaps a printed version of your document will be easier to proofread. Just leave yourself enough time to go back into the digital document to make changes you’ve marked on your printouts. Proofing onscreen is great, too, and saves paper if you’re able to do it. Do what works.

Read Out Loud and Slowly: Reading aloud is a great way to check a document for errors, especially if you go slowly. It not only catches typos, but also duplicate words, mismatched tenses, and issues of tone and flow.

Don’t Miss the Small and Big Stuff: Always double-check headings and subheads; address and signature blocks; headers, footers, footnotes, and end notes; and text inside graphics and charts. Literally, every dot of ink needs to be scrutinized.

Keep Things Consistent: Maintain your capitalization, punctuation, and formatting consistent throughout. Also, define acronyms the first time they appear in a document, then use the acronym going forward. (You might want to spell it out in any call-out boxes or info boxes, but that will depend on your space needs.) You can always use “Find/Replace” to make sure you’re using the same way of writing something throughout, like single family vs. single-family.

Make Sure Links Are Active: Click on any links you have in your document to be certain they take the reader to the intended location on the Web. Only link to reputable and stable sites to ensure that the link will last a long time rather than give your readers a 404 Error code a month or two after you’ve published.

Honor the Names of People, Groups, and Organizations: People like to see their names spelled correctly, so always double-check that you’ve got it right. You can do an Internet search to find their name, title, and organization, or look back through any communication you’ve had with the person. Use any accents or diacritical marks that they use, such as an accented é. If you have trouble typing out their names, you can usually copy and paste from the Web. Do the same for the names of organizations, nations, and Tribes.

Use Spell and Grammar Checkers: Back before spell-check, proofreaders would read a document from the back to the front, word by word, looking for spelling errors. Modern spell checkers make that unnecessary and are an important tool in the proofreading quiver. Always run your document through a checker; after your initial proofread is best in case you’ve made any new mistakes while fixing errors. Grammarly and other tools like it will also help you with sentence structure, tone, and more.

The last tip I’ll give for quality proofreading is to consider having an outside contractor do the work for you. They are educated and experienced in grammar and publication standards, so you do not have to be. Spending your billable time in your areas of expertise often makes better fiscal sense. Sometimes, too, it can be hard for the writer of copy to see it clearly; after all, they’ve been immersed in it for a while, and since they know what they want their piece to say, their eyes can trick them into missing mistakes.

So, finding a professional to polish your communications and deliverables often makes good sense. If you have a project in mind or would like to talk about ongoing support through Ink Farmer, please reach out. We’d love to hear from you.