1. Proofreading AGED 3142

2. Why proofread?  People make important judgements about you based on your ability to proofread. They look at your writing to determine your... l Thoroughness and attention to detail l Communication ability l Professional competence l Intellect

3. Levels of Proofreading/Editing  Overall content l Look at the entire document. Does it do what you intend for it to do? l Does it communicate your intended message?  Organization l Look at how your message is organized. Is there a clear hierarchy of information, or is the structure unclear and the flow weak?

4. Levels, cont’d. l Are paragraphs organized and focused on one topic?  Sentences l Are sentences grammatically correct, in active voice, with action verbs and concrete nouns? Are they punctuated correctly? Missing or double periods, commas, and quotation marks are tough to catch.

5. Levels, cont’d.  Words l Are your words chosen carefully? Are they unambiguous? l Are your words spelled correctly? Have you used the correct word form? Every letter must be accounted for--problems with L’s and I’s are especially difficult to catch (eg., Okalhoma, Liitigation).

6. Levels, cont’d  Design (the most overlooked level) l Check margins, rules, bulleted lists, line breaks (especially with hyphenated words), indents/tabs, leading, kerning, type size and font, and type styles. l Are the appropriate signatures or initials (memos) there?

7. Tips  Build time for proofreading into your schedule.  Never proofread in a distracting environment.  Never proofread too quickly.  Look at every letter of every word and every millimeter of space on a page.  Get someone to proofread with you.