How to Accurately Proofread Your Copy

When it comes to writing and publishing copy, it seems like a fairly straightforward task. You write the text and you hit “publish” on your platform. But it’s actually far more in-depth than that. The whole process, from start-to-finish, is quite complex. Part of making sure that you’re producing quality content is to make sure that it’s clear, concise and coherent. 

It also needs to be grammatically correct and be written in the right form of English, such as British English or American English, depending on who you’re writing for. You might be wondering why quality content is important. According to Google, the search engine will crawl the content for signs of trustworthiness, high levels of expertise and authenticity. 

Together, those things determine how high you appear in the search engine results pages (SERPs) when someone looks on Google for the topic you’re writing about. But how do you make sure that your copy is of a high enough quality to rank well in the SERPs in the first place? The answer is easy – proofread. In this article, we’ll be detailing how you can accurately proofread the copy you’re writing so that it’s published in a high-quality state. Let’s take a closer look:

“Listen” to what you have written

While this might sound funny, it’s actually an incredibly useful method if you’re wanting to accurately proofread your copy. Not only does it make you privy to how it would sound in the mind of another individual, but it also highlights other issues, including repeating words and phrases and punctuation being in the wrong places. 

For example, where would you naturally pause and where wouldn’t you? That tells you where your commas and full stops need to go. Reading the copy aloud makes a world of difference to the quality of the content you’re writing and publishing, but how can you “listen” to your copy? Here are some methods:

• Have someone else read it out to you
• Record yourself reading it and then listen to it back
• Use an electronic ‘read aloud’ option on the programme you’re using
• Simply read it aloud yourself

Don’t rely solely on grammar & spelling checkers

While these might seem like a good idea, in terms of saving time and highlighting errors simultaneously, they actually can’t be relied upon if you’re looking to write and publish professionally-crafted copy. Grammar and spelling checkers have flaws, and the system will only recognise what it’s been programmed to highlight. The other issue is that they vary in terms of British and American spelling and grammar. 

While American spellings might be obvious, American grammar, in comparison to British grammar, isn’t so easy to spot. The only way you’ll be able to precisely and accurately check your copy for spelling and grammar mistakes is to look at it yourself with your trained eyes. If you’re not trained in the art of copywriting or aren’t aware of any spelling and grammar rules, then this might be the only way you can check the text for errors. 

The solution? Ask a professional content writer to create the content for you. Kumo has specialist copywriters on hand to produce quality content that is accurate in terms of spelling, grammar and context. Regardless of the industry you work in, we can always be counted upon to produce copy for your industry, whether it be website pages or articles and blog posts.

Go through & look out for one error at a time

When proofreading your copy, you may need to go through the whole piece more than once. I know this sounds time consuming, but it’ll be all the better for having spent that level of time on it. Go through it all and look for something different each time. The first time, look for grammatical errors. The second time, look for spelling mistakes. The third time, make sure the formatting is up to standard, and so on. 

Read through the copy slowly

Skim-reading a chunk of text isn’t accurately proofreading it. You need to take the time to carefully and meticulously look through the text, checking for any mistakes along the way. Each time you proofread, you need to do so slowly and deliberately. It’s all part of the writing process, and shouldn’t be seen as a laborious task that just needs to be done quickly before it can be published.

If it’s long-form content, divide it into manageable chunks

The best way to tackle proofreading long form content is to break it up into more management chunks of text. This way, it doesn’t seem like a never-ending task and it also allows for you to take breaks, which is something we’ll get onto in a moment. When it comes to proofreading, you need to be engaged, so if you’re not, then that’s where mistakes can be missed. Tackle long-form content by dividing it up and taking it one section at a time.

Make a note of any mistakes you make on a regular basis

Human writers will often find their own flaws when they proofread the content they produce, precisely because we’re human. Humans make mistakes, but you’ll often find that, when proofreading your own copy, that there are some common errors that you make, no matter how many times you’ve made them and corrected them. 

Make a note of everything that you do wrong when writing copy and make sure that you’re checking the copy along the way with those common errors in mind. You can add this to your list of things to check, especially if you’re going to proofread the copy once for every mistake that might be present (which is something we touched upon earlier in this blog post). 

Take a proofreading break & come back to it with fresh eyes

As I’ve previously mentioned, proofreading needs to be done when you’re engaged and alert. Otherwise, important things are missed and your content quality will slip. Part of accurately proofreading copy is to make sure that you’re constantly coming back to it with fresh eyes. 

Whether you take a 15 minute break or come back to it the next day, you need to give your eyes and your brain a rest, especially if it’s a long-form piece of content. Come back to it with fresh eyes. If you find yourself becoming bored or if you start rushing to get it done, then that’s your sign to stop and take a break.

Kumo is pleased to provide customers throughout the UK with sterling digital marketing services, designed to propel your business into the spotlight and helping to set you apart from the competition. We are proud to offer a wide range of marketing services, including content writing, SEO, PPC, website design and more. If you would like further information about how we can help you today, get in touch with a member of our friendly, knowledgeable team – we’re always pleased to hear from you.