10 Apply editing and proofreading strategies to your writing
Producing high-quality documents through editing and proofreading is a key skill for HR professionals. The strategies below have been used by students and professionals alike to edit work.
Take a break from writing before editing your work.
Come back to your editing after an hour or even a day. Giving yourself a bit of time away from the writing will help you see your work from a fresh perspective.
Print out your content.
Proofreading accurately when reading from a screen can be challenging. You may wish to copy the text you wish to use into a document, print the document, and read and edit on the printed copy. This may help you to identify errors more accurately.
Read your writing out loud.
Hearing it aloud will make awkward phrasings and redundancies more apparent to you and will help you catch missing or repeated words. You may be quite surprised to hear how different your writing sounds when spoken.
Ask a friend or tutor to read your writing.
A new reader can ask you what you are intending to say when your writing is unclear. When you explain it to them, you can see what might be missing. They can also offer insight on your content, and often see mistakes that you have overlooked. Visit tlc.kpu.ca to access writing support: face to face and online tutoring are available.
Focus on content first
Return to your assignment instructions and rubric and review the instructions for each page of your portfolio. Put yourself in the position of your instructor; according to the criteria given, how would you evaluate your work? Be sure that your content meets assignment requirements and that it is organized in a logical manner. Then, check to see that paragraphs flow well and that each paragraph is focused around a clear central point.
Move on to proofreading
The video below provides some useful suggestions on proofreading your work in a business context.
Personalize your proofreading
Review your instructor’s comments and any notes from tutoring sessions at the Learning Centre, paying particular attention to errors you commit frequently.
Learn to recognize and fix them, and then proofread with a specific eye toward these types of errors.
Checking your Sentence Structure
- Have you varied sentence structure and length?
- Have you reviewed each sentence to check that there are no incomplete sentences, run-on sentences, and that punctuation is used correctly?
- Are parallel ideas expressed in parallel form?
- Have you tried to eliminate wordiness by removing unnecessary words such as a lot, or really?
Grammar and Usage
- Do all verbs agree with their subjects? Particularly check long, complex sentences.
- Have you used the correct verb tense and form?
- When you have used a pronoun, is what the pronoun refers to clear?
- Are all quotes and paraphrases properly introduced and explained? Are they correctly cited both within the text and in a Works Cited page?
- Is all spelling correct? Be especially careful of homonyms such as your/you’re, to/too/two, write/right, and there/their/they’re.
Access Additional Writing Support
One of the ways to help yourself succeed is to take advantage of the writing support available to you as a student. You have several options – choose one that fits your schedule and preferred way of learning.
- Make a face-to-face appointment with a Peer Tutor in the Learning Centre. Writing Tutors are available at all KPU campuses. Peer Tutors provide strategies and techniques for improving your writing skills. You may ask for help with developing a clear thesis, writing an outline, organizing your writing clearly, forming strong paragraphs, or any other aspect of writing. Peer Tutors will not edit your work for you, but they will provide you with strategies for editing. You can book online at tlc.kpu.ca, or visit the Learning Centre in person.
- Make an online face-to-face appointment. Log into tlc.kpu.ca with your student number and password, and schedule an appointment to meet with a tutor in real-time (similar to meeting on Skype).
