Editing & Proofreading

Editing and proofreading are just a part of the writing process. Without doing those steps, your chances of turning in work with errors or unclear thoughts greatly increases. Editing and proofreading are two different steps; they are not the same thing. We will examine each one separately to get a clear idea of what it is, how you do it, and why it is important to producing good business writing.

Editing Explained

When you edit the work you have produced, you are looking at such things as:

Structure: This is where you will want to confirm that you have produced a professional-looking document that follows the guidelines examined in previous lessons. You will want to make sure that your letter is formatted properly and you have the dates, CCs, enclosures, and all other necessary information included. You also will want to look at each paragraph to see if it makes sense and that all paragraphs are in logical order.

Content: This includes making sure that the letter or document does what the assignment was to do. For example, if your assignment was to write a complaint letter to another company, did you state what the complaint was clearly, how it can be handled, etc.?

Clarity: Editing is the time for checking to see that everything has been written clearly and is understandable. Sometimes when we write and are doing it fast and off the top of our heads, we get ahead of ourselves. It is easy to write things that seem like they are making sense as you think about them; but when you reread the passage, you can see that it does not make a lot of sense. Editing to make such sections more clear for the reader is essential to producing a professional document.

Do not be surprised if, when you start editing your work, you end up rewriting half of it. This happens to a lot of people and it is normal. The goal in writing is to get the words down on paper, and through editing you can go back and reshape them into something even better. However, if you find yourself doing this, pay attention to what you keep editing over and over. Maybe there is a pattern in what you are doing and you can try to avoid it in the future.

Proofreading Explained

The process of proofreading should be the last step in the writing process. Once you have written a draft and edited it to your liking, you are then ready to do a quick spell-check on the computer. Once you have done that, you are ready to proofread the document.

In proofreading, you are looking for mistakes such as grammar, capitalization, typos, and misspelled words. While some people do this on computers today, making changes as they go along, others prefer to do it with a printed piece of paper in their hand. There is no right or wrong way to proofread. It does have to be done on the computer or on paper. Many offices today are becoming more environmentally friendly, which is one reason some would prefer to proofread right on the screen, thus saving all the extra sheets of paper.

To proofread, you will need to read the document very slowly. If it is possible for you to read the document aloud, that is even better. When you can read it aloud and hear what has been written, you are relying on more than just vision and may catch things that do not sound quite right. Some people also recommend reading the document backward, word for word, to catch things that are not correct. Another great option is to have someone else look the document over. You would be amazed at the spelling errors someone else can find even after you have gone over it several times. It never hurts to have a second pair of eyes go over the document if possible.

As you get started with your business writing, pay attention to whether there are errors you consistently make. Then you will know what to be more careful of and can try to avoid in the future.

Proofreader marks may be necessary for some academic or work purposes. While they were more commonly used years ago, before there were computers, some places still routinely use them today.

The task of learning the proofreader's marks and using them may seem daunting at first. However, after you have worked with them for a couple of weeks, they will be like second nature and you will know them well. The document is handy to have printed and readily available in the event someone asks you to proofread and be their second pair of eyes. You could easily use the marks, which are universal in the country, to proofread the document and then return it back to the first proofreader with your suggestions.

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