A proofreading technique

Here’s an approach to proofreading I’ve found to be effective: turn the document into a plain text email message, email it to yourself, then read each word aloud. You’ll catch errors big and small this way.

Some details and thoughts. First, the operating principle to this technique is this: when you see a familiar thing from a fresh perspective, the familiar thing seems new.

In this case, the fresh perspective is that of a reader. Your brain naturally shifts to a reader’s POV when reading email, even if it’s email from yourself. As a reader, you’re not going to be defensive about the document’s errors, and you won’t try to deny their existence. I bet a lot of that denial can happen on a subconscious level, which is why even experienced writers can miss their own mistakes.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could step outside of your body and see all the annoying character flaws that you’re normally blind to but that everyone else around you notices? Well, at least you can do it for writing.

I use my Yahoo Mail account for this technique, with the text coming in as plain old Courier. This helps me see all the errors standing stark naked before me, black on white. Specify a Courier font in the Yahoo Mail Options menu.

Another important factor here is line width. It’s better to have a relatively narrow window, one that can hold maybe 50 to 60 characters per line. I get impatient when I read those long horizontals. And when I get impatient, I miss errors.

Copyright © 2007 Darrin Koltow