By Dana P Skopal, PhD
With the current level of electronic technology, we mostly write on a computer or other electronic devices. For some, this may be very different to writing on paper and reading printed documents. Whether it be on a computer screen or on paper, do you proof-read your writing? In our busy schedules, how often do you check or re-read what you have written before you send it to a colleague or client?
Checking our work or proof-reading can mean different things to each of us. Some may argue it is ok if the message makes sense, while others may use a grammar and spell checker for all their sentences. Others may just check punctuation. If you are writing an important business or research document, then I argue all stages of editing and proof-reading are important. A writer should make their message clear for their reader, which entails good sentence construction, excellent coherence and correct punctuation. Grammar rules and organisational style guides exist for a reason.
If your message is a friendly email, you may simply press ‘send’ and not check anything. But if your email message contains important information, how do you check the content before you send it? Some writers may quickly re-read their message, while others may save it as a draft and take time to review their approach. If the content in the email is important, then it is good to check your message as if you were proof-reading a printed letter.
However, though your message may be grammatically correct, a re-read that examines links between key points may indeed provide an ‘idea-check’ that throws up issues (for example, your order of points may not be clear). A writer should be continually checking the logical order of their content, which is a part of the drafting/revising stages.
Taking time to check your work may also involve reviewing layout and adding in more spacing between paragraphs, which research has shown assists a reader.
For important texts, it is worth having a checklist when proof-reading your final draft. Make a check-list that works for you. An important first check is see that what you want your reader to do with this message is placed somewhere a reader can easily find it (and not be buried somewhere towards the end). Have you clearly told your reader: what they need to do, when by, and why this is important? Next, take the headings and first sentence of each paragraph and check that they make sense to an independent reader (without the remaining paragraph content). After that, review sentence structure so it fits the subject + verb+ object format, which equates to ‘who does what’. The last check can be reviewing spelling and punctuation.
In practice, a good check for any written document is to have someone with a fresh pair of eyes read the full text. As a writer we often ‘see’ what we think we have stated rather than what wording is actually in our text.
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