What are some effective strategies to proofread your own writing?

Imagine your purpose as the ultimate treasure chest 💎 and your audience as the X marking the spot on a pirate's map 🏴☠️. All you need to do is connect the dots! 🌟 First, let's bring out your inner Sherlock Holmes. Ask yourself, 'What's my golden goal here?' It could be as simple as spreading joy with a joke, or as complex as explaining the theory of relativity! Next, picture your audience. Are they kids eagerly waiting for a bedtime story or scientists hunting for the next big breakthrough? Your words are like the keys to their hearts. Use the right ones and voila, you've unlocked a connection! Remember, writing is like baking a cake. It's not just about the ingredients, but how you mix them! 😉 🎂

One more thing to decide before you revise - what actions, if any, do you want the reader to take? As an executive coach, I want to make sure my client walks out with clear actions. As a writer, it's the same. Do you want them to sit down and reflect? Want them to get motivated and call two friends to talk the idea over? Want them to get on the phone and make a doctor's appointment? We read a lot of information in a day - which of it will we take action on? Will your piece be one of the ones that leads to action?

If you find that you're having trouble fitting your essay into your thesis, consider if you need to tackle it in reverse by fitting your thesis into your essay. Sometimes the scope of an idea changes as we develop it; rather than fighting against the grain and spending hours editing, be mindful of when it's time to take a step back and say, "This piece isn't going where I thought it was, and that's okay." Altering your thesis is a quick way to better align your piece without introducing extensive revisions.

One of the things I have found helpful is to read the article backwards. It forces me to pay attention to the structure and what I am writing. I also ask myself “so what” what’s the so what of what I have just written? Is it clear what the call to action or takeaway from the article is?

I tend to read my paragraphs out loud rather than whizz through online; it's only then when I notice words I've missed out or spelling mistakes etc.

Transitions are notoriously difficult, but they don't have to be. If you feel that two paragraphs are too disconnected, say aloud to yourself what the connection between them is or should be. Then, explain it simply (verbally or in writing), as if you were explaining it to a child or a teenager. Somewhere in that explanation is the connecting thought.

By far the best thing you can do as you revise is to give the piece distance. Run through it, let it sit, and then come back with fresh eyes. If you don't give yourself this kind of break, then biases and fatigue set in, which means you'll miss errors and fail to consider alternatives that could improve the draft.

One thing that I find helpful is using the word, document voice, to have the computer read back to me what I typed. This helps me go into the paragraph and make sure that my sentences are concise and clear. I also avoid jargon, and I adapt my document to my audience. For an example, if I am working with someone with low literacy levels; I’m going to adapt my document to their literacy level.

I would suggest reading your work out loud and look for places that you naturally pause or change your inflection. That doesn't necessarily mean a punctuation mark will go there but, often, it does.

My best tip here is to download an extension on your desktop or laptop called Grammarly. They have free and paid versions, however, both are great. This extension, if activated, will travel with you all over LinkedIn, WordPress blogs, social media posts, Google Drive, anywhere you write. It has saved me thousands in hiring an editor for grammar and sentence structure, and has made me a better writer.

The one thing I *always* do: Read anything I've written out loud. I had an old editor teach me this trick and it's ridiculously effective: You can hear the rhythm of your writing and whether you're going to bore your readers; you also spot mistakes easier, like double words or weird word choices. The one thing is: You do have to get used to people looking at you weirdly as you stare at your computer talking to it...

As a news editor and former writer for broadcast news scripts, my best tip for proof reading is to read your writing out loud! When you're writing an essay or frankly anything, sometimes your thoughts come out in your head but words are missed on paper. For me, I always catch myself when proofreading out loud that I occasionally missed the most simple words because I had it in my head, but my brain skipped over it when writing. My biggest savior has been always reading it again aloud.