Blogging, writing, its all about having the freedom to write when and where you want but that’s not what this is about – this is about proofreading what you have written properly. Picture it. You’ve worked all the hours God sends to meet your deadline; your piece has been written, rewritten and rewritten again. You know what it says off by heart so you submit it and hope that you have done enough. Have you? It all comes down to the proofreading and here is how it’s done.

Make Use of Grammarly

It doesn’t matter how meticulous you are, grammatical errors have a way of slipping through the net. There are plenty of free tools that you can use but one of the best is called Grammarly. It is free to use and it will let you check your articles for spelling errors, grammatical errors, even offering suggestions where weak words can be replaced with better ones.

Take Your Time

Leave your finished article alone, if not for a day at least for an hour or two. Then, and only then, should you look at it again with fresh eyes. Go through it one line at a time and fix any mistakes you find. If needs be, get someone else to take a look at it -sometimes someone not connected to the work will see things that you can't.

Check For Punctuation and Grammar

Pay special attention to possibly misused words and to spelling errors. While your spell check program will pick up most of them, it may miss one or two and it may not pick up on misused words, like ‘there’ and ‘their’. If you are in any doubt, use a dictionary or a thesaurus. And while you are at it, check your punctuation is correct.

DRY – Don’t Repeat Yourself

Keep a special eye on repeated words and sentence structures. If you have too many, readers get bored. Your writing style needs to flow; readers don’t like too much repetition.

Give Credit Where it is Due

If your facts come from an external source, you must identify that source. Plagiarism is illegal and it is unethical. It isn’t fair to take someone else’s hard work and use it for yourself. If you do need to quote figures or facts in your writing, make sure they are credited to the original writer.

Check That What You Write Makes Sense

It might be better to have someone else read it – someone who is not familiar with the topic will see errors and inconsistencies where you can’t see them. They will also tell you if more explanation is required for certain parts. Another way to see if your work makes sense is to read it out loud – you will hear if it flows properly.

There are plenty of benefits to proofreading, not least the fact that your work is of a much better quality. Your image will look more professional and you will be taken far more seriously in your chosen arena, be it as a blogger or a book author. Take the time to proofread and your investment will pay off.