Some Tips on What to Remember When Copyediting Your Own Work
If you have written something for publishing or even a school project, you are going to need to proofread it to ensure there are no mistakes.
You must read the work out loud, then back to front and front to back, this will help you hear if the sentence structure flows well or not. As you’re reading, each word should be said aloud slowly. It would be beneficial to tape record yourself reading, so that when you listen to it from the beginning, you can concentrate on small sections at a time. This will help you catch errors that you would have otherwise probably overlooked.
As you’re reading, write down questions you have, and make sure they are answered by the end of the text. It’s a very good idea to read your style guide before you begin reading the body of work, because it will put you in the right frame of mind, and most likely help you watch out for things you may have otherwise missed. Even when you think you are certain of a fact, double-check it anyway, because a copyeditor will second-guess you a lot anyway, so you should definitely, second-guess yourself even more.
Always keep a dictionary handy, because there are many words you probably “know” exactly how to spell, but sometimes your mind might be thinking of the word in the wrong context. Let’s not forget, after all of this, it is best to have someone else look it over!
Liked it
Tags: copyediting, proofreading, publishing, Writing
Click the icon to the left to subscribe to Writinghood with your favorite RSS reader.
December 8th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Hi Sue, how are you?
I’m glad to see that you’re doing your best to edit your own work before you submit it. That’s good.
Your first two sentences though, and the first sentence of your second paragraph have spelling erors:
“…work out loud, than back…” than should be then;
“As your reading, each…” your should be you’re, as well as in
“As your reading, write down…” your should be you’re. Remember that those are contractions of you are. It might help to avoid them if you can’t remember them. The way I got used to contractions was I took them all out of my writing until I knew what words I was using. Maybe that’ll help you?
Nice work, though, otherwise. Thanks for sharing.
December 9th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Hi Adam, thank you for your comments about the spelling errors in my article. You are right so I’ve corrected it to be re-posted.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Thanks for the reminder – yes, making sure you edit your work is very important!
Blessings.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.