Proofreading The Easy Way
We all know how important proofreading is, right? It’s also more than likely you’re aware that any piece of writing usually needs proofreading more than once. After all, it’s not just your typos and confusing sentences that need catching, but also the infamous incorrect (and sometimes humorous) Autocorrect.
My personal ‘top of the list’ mistake though is continually reading the words that I thought I wrote but actually didn’t. Frustrating and infuriating! To be honest, I think missing typing errors is as much a part of writing as spending half an hour staring at your page trying to come up with the perfect descriptive word.
The question, therefore, is, what can you do about?
Obviously there’s the option of finding yourself a quality proofreader, but that can be expensive and might seem at little extreme for everyday writing - no matter how important it is. There’s also the option of using up the generosity of friends and family, which doesn’t guarantee all typos will be seen, and can add pressure to a relationship. I could of course add here, trusting in you own proofreading skills, but as my favourite proofreader is always saying, ‘you can’t proofread your own work.’
Over the years I’ve come up with a variety of ways that increase the chances of error-free writing. The latest, and most convenient one, though, is simply to get the computer to read me my work. There’s no doubt that the computerised voice usually sounds far from human, but, in many cases, I’ve found that only emphasises the awkward sentences. But more importantly, in my case, the mechanical voice always reads what’s on the page as opposed to what I think I typed on the page.
You don’t even have to download any extra software to make your computer an avid reader of your work. Both Word and Pages already come with the feature.
I’d never say writers don’t benefit from having their work proofread. I’ve been writing too many years to say that. However, I certainly think that using a text-to-voice option will help you pick up typos and bad word choices, if not punctuation mistakes. It’s also works wonderfully for anybody who is more audio than visual.
Go on, have a go. I’d love to know what you think.
