Saturday 1 June 2013

Doing Academic Proofreading In A Few Steps

By Rena Hudson


Academic proofreading is not just about editing the spelling and grammar of a paper as it is crucial for these kinds of written works to be as near to perfect as possible. That is why proofreaders are expected to be able to go through a process in which they edit these works. Of course there are a lot of things to look at and take note of when doing this kind of activity.

The first thing that one should do would be to look at the paper from a far and check for any mistakes in the format. If one has spotted some mistakes, do not make any changes yet as this is only the first step. Take note that formatting is extremely important because readers also take a look at how the paper is presented.

Most proofreaders would skip this step and go directly to editing the paper and look for mistakes in details right away. Now take note that doing this will just confuse the proofreader because he will have absolutely no idea what he is editing and therefore will have a hard time spotting for mistakes. Before editing the paper, it is important to first read through the text.

So after going through these things, now would be the time to check the paper if there are any mistakes in content and formatting. So start with the first sentence and check if the spelling, word usage, and grammar are all correct. If there are mistakes, then use special indications and markings that will help the writer be able to know where he made mistakes and errors.

Another thing proofreaders should watch out for would be sentences that have absolutely nothing to do with the written work. Sometimes without realizing, writers put some extra phrases or sentences that do not really need to be there. It is the job of the proofreader to spot these things and be able to correct or remove them.

While one is doing this, then he must also pay attention to the formatting of the paper as well. If there should be extra indentations or spaces, the proofreaders should put an indication on where the mistakes are. The font should also be consistent without any mistakes in size, color, and font family.

The last thing to look at would be the bibliography, footnotes, and the presentation of sources. Of course academic works will need a list of sources that will be written in a separate part of the piece of work where people can use as references. It is important that one know which format to use like MLA or APA and one must also be able to know how to use them properly.

If one wants to become a proofreader, then these are the things that he will be doing. Academic proofreading is actually the most difficult of them all because of the long process. Also, these works cannot be edited just anyhow because readers would expect works from famous authors or scholars to be as close to perfect as possible.




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