By Dana P Skopal, PhD

As discussed previously, writing a document is rarely completed without thinking and producing several drafts. However, to finalise the document we also should proofread the text. How often do you check or proofread what you have written? Have your steps changed as we now mostly write on a computer or other electronic devices?

Let’s first consider emails. If the message is a friendly email, you may simply press ‘send’ and not check anything. But if your email message contains important information, do you check the content before you send it? Some may just 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 the text as if you were proofreading a printed letter.

Ask yourself: how do you check your documents, including the attachments to your emails? Do you check the wording on the screen or do you print the file out? Many people that I work with print out the file if the content is important. Often, we can see errors on a printed page and not on a screen. Checking for spelling, punctuation, or spacing should be the final check. This a key proofreading step.  

Actually, one good check for any document or important email 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 or numbers appear in our text. Proof-reading is perhaps more effective if it is done by someone other than the message writer/creator.

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