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A Proofreader’s Checklist
Written by Darrell Anderson.
General Method
Today most writing is created, proofread, and edited using a computer display screen. Even text that uses dead trees runs through this process most of the time. Working with a computer screen is not conducive toward quality proofreading, however. Yet there are some tricks to improve editing and proofreading text on screen.
- Modify the text and display. Some word processors and text editors allow toggling the background screen and text color.
- If unable to modify the background color, then at least toggle between a serif and sans serif font. This simple process of modifying the appearance helps notice textual errors.
- With extra long or complicated texts, printing to paper often helps modify the material to identify mistakes.
- Change the effective screen width, such as toggling between a normal page display and two columns. Modifying the width changes the patterns the eyes see, which will help identify mistakes.
Common Textual Problems
- Look for homophones such as hear/here.
- Look for close-sounding words such as access/excess.
- Look for misuse of s and ’s.
- Look for misuse of its and it’s.
- Look for transposed letters.
- Look for omitted letters.
- Look for added letters.
- Look for consistent word usage and style.
- Look for correct grammar.
- Look for correct spelling.
- Verify the material is easy to comprehend.
- Verify with subject matter experts that information is not missing.
- Verify with subject matter experts that information isn’t misleading.
- Verify the text is not wordy.
- Verify the illustrations are correctly identified.
- Verify the text is written in “bite-size”' chunks.
- Verify the upper and lower cased letters are used properly.
- Verify the table of contents is easy to use.
- Verify the index uses subtopics.
- Verify the table of contents references the correct pages.
- Verify the index references the correct pages.
- Verify the text references the correct pages and illustrations.
- Verify that acronyms, jargon and abbreviations is limited.
- Verify the document is paginated correctly.
Common Document Design Problems
- Verify the illustrations convey information and are easy to look at.
- Verify the illustrations are located near their associated text.
- Verify the document does not cause eye strain.
- Verify that white space is used efficiently.
- Verify that text styles are consistent.
- Verify that type spacing and justification is consistent.
- If appropriate, verify the reader has space to write notes.
- Verify that serif and sans serif fonts are used appropriately.
- Verify that lists are used appropriately.
Finis.
Table of Contents
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