How to Easily Edit and Proofread Your Content By Yourself?

So, you just finished writing a large piece of content and you are very proud of yourself for the same! You look at the draft and give yourself a pat on the back for finishing this tedious content draft. Now, like any good writer, you may want to re-read it before sending it directly to the client or publishing it. We all know that it is best to skim and scan to improve our first draft a little bit. More often than not, the first draft always needs some corrections.

Our eyes tend to overlook our own mistakes. This is a proven fact. Since we know what we want to say in the sentence, our brain reads it that way, overlooking the typo or the error. This happens for real even if you give it a third read! Trust me, you still may not be able to find your own mistakes. So what do you do? Hiring a proofreader may or may not be in your budget. Or maybe you do not have enough time to get it done from someone else. Don’t worry, I have got you covered.

Here are a few ways in which you can help yourself. With these little tricks, you will be able to edit and proofread your content easily. I use them every day, they are super simple and helpful.

Don’t Write and Edit at the same time:

This is a simple yet effective technique when it comes to proofreading and editing yourself. While we are writing, our brain is thinking in a very different way. We are in a different zone. Correcting the mistakes then-and-there is fine but often we tend to overlook typos and little grammatical errors in this phase. It is always best to take some time off say a few hours between writing and editing for best results.

Change the font/colour:

As mentioned, our brain and eyes neglect our own mistakes because we have seen the draft before. The trick here is to change the font and colour of the draft as this gives an illusion to the brain that we are getting into a fresh piece thus it gets more alert to do the job. Try it, you will know the difference yourself!

Enlarge it make it readable, eye-pleasing:

When you try to proofread in your computer, tablet or phone, it is not so pleasant for your eyes. Your eyes may get watery or tired and send blurry signals to the brain. So, increase the font, enlarge it so as to make your content eye-pleasing to read. Thus, the process of editing becomes smooth and flawless.

Pro Tip: Download apps like Twilight and save yourself from the negative effects of the blue light.

Read it aloud:

Again a very good technique that works best for me. I like to read the matter out aloud so that I do not miss any word. This technique has helped many writers to submit a flawless draft every time. As now you can read and hear all the sentences so finding the odds. The process becomes a lot easier and faster.

Take breaks:

Take a minimum of 30 minutes break between writing and editing your content. Let your brain come out of the zone and you get a fresh perspective when you read the draft. Some writers like to write in the morning and edit in the evening. So it feels like working on a new draft altogether for the second and the third time. Find out what works for you and follow that!

Print out a hardcopy for large scripts:

This is a no brainer! If you are editing a manuscript or a large draft then you sure must take a print out and then work on the editing. It isn’t a good idea to work on large scripts on the computer. There are high chances of overlooking the mistakes.

I edited my book Ria’s Diary three times by printing it out. Reading a hard copy while editing and proofreading saves a lot of time and is less burden on the eyes as well.

Take Technical Help:

Software apps like Grammarly and Ginger or Hemingway help you to reduce your mistakes by correcting your grammar and spellings. These indeed make your work simple and assure faster results. However, simply relying on them is also not always safe. I highly recommend you to read your draft yourself first and then run it through the app. They indeed help you with spellings and are great time savers. Also, they are good for providing alternatives and suggest changes as well.