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Typos


Here are some tips to help your catch typos and other content mistakes. Some of them involve "tricking" your brain to see mistakes you might ordinarily read over.


  1. Read your work slowly aloud.

  2. Ask a friend or colleague to proofread the document.

  3. Print out your work to read it in another form.

  4. Use a ruler or straight edge to help you read one line at a time

  5. Start at the end and read your paragraphs in reverse order.

Proofreading a document, such as a policy and procedure manual, may require you to step away from the project. When we are too close to a writing project, we tend to "read over" our own mistakes.

If your deadline allows, it won't hurt to sleep on the proofreading process. You will come back the next day with fresher eyes and a fresher perspective. If you don't have the time to wait overnight, at least step away from your desk for a short break and/or work on something else for a while.

Keep your readers in mind, as you carefully evaluate your tone and your content. Here are some further questions to consider.

  1. Have I included enough information for my reader to understand the policy and procedure?

  2. Have I anticipated any questions that may come up and answered them in the manual -- or at least directed the reader to helpful sources?

  3. Have I included too much information? Is my writing boring or confusing the reader with unnecessary details and information?

  4. What do I want the reader to do with the manual when he or she has finished reading it? Have I given enough information on updates and revisions that may come in the future?

Clear writing does not just happen naturally for most writers. Writers have to work at it.

A good policy manual is the result of many hours of researching, analyzing, thinking, and then writing, proofreading, getting feedback, and making revisions.

Do not expect to have a completed manual on your first attempt. You may well be an expert on your business and on your industry, but writing this kind of manual is the result of a process.

The result of that process does have a light at the end of the tunnel. It will be a useful, informational document that will help your organization do what it does with more efficiency.



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