Importance of Proofreading Your Work
Many students in Phoenix and surrounding areas are struggling with writing. One of the major components is that they lack checking their work when they are finished. All students from elementary to college level can benefit by proofreading their work. Phoenix Tutoring and Test Prep recommend students to proofread all of their typed and hand-written papers because it only takes a few minutes and can strongly improve your grades.
What to look for while Proofreading?
Spelling: Students must look for incorrect spellings which are not picked up by Word spelling checkers such as names and places like Scottsdale or Alicia. It is hard to believe but spellcheckers can miss words especially names that are uncommon.
Run-on and Fragments: Check for run-on sentences and fragments because sometimes when your ideas are in your mind they sound different than when they are written on paper.
Punctuations: Check for commas, semicolons, colons, periods, quotation marks and make sure all the punctuations are correctly placed. If you are missing any fix them.
Reading in your head: Read your sentences out load or in your head. Look for things that do not make sense. If your sentences do not sound right to you then you can be certain that it does not sound clear to others either.
Fluidity: Check that your paper flows smoothly from one idea to the next. Look out for incomplete ideas because they appear choppy to your readers. If you need help jumping from one idea to the next smoothly then try using transition words.
Typos: The last major thing you check for while proofreading your work is typos. Sometimes you mean one thing but end up typing something else. By slowly re-reading (proofreading) your work you can identify typos and fix them as necessary.
Who Can Do Proofreading?
You can proofread your own work. It helps when you re-read your own sentences because then you know what it really sounds like on paper. You are also learning from re-reading your own work.
You can also have a classmate, parent, sibling or a close friend proofread your paper. It helps to have a second set of eyes look at it and make appropriate corrections.
You can have a professional look at it like a teacher, editor or a tutor who is experienced with writing. Here at Phoenix Tutoring & Test Prep we provide proofreading services to our clients at a low cost for all their class papers and projects.
How Does Proofreading Help?
You end up with better quality of papers being turned in for a grade at school. Proofreading allows you to improve your reading and writing skills because when you have someone proofread your work they will provide feedback that will help you fix your writing errors. It allows you an opportunity to see your mistakes and understand why you need to fix it.