It is that time of the year, and I am not talking about Christmas. It is the end of the semester and all your papers are due. Finals are coming up and you will be asked to write long, elaborate essay questions so the following tips have been designed to help you edit and proof read more efficiently.

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Even if you’re not in school, maybe you are looking for tips on how to write a better report for your boss, or a better research summary. Basically, no one likes to read a paper that looks like it was put together by a band of wild hyenas. Editing and proofing is simple if you follow these tips.

1. Print out. Do not correct your paper on the computer. Printing it out will let you work your way through the paper and make it less likely that you will read over silly mistakes. Pretend like the copy you print out is the ‘good’ copy, even if it is the draft. This will put you in a different mind set, one where you will be more attentive to mistakes.

2. Double space. Most teachers ask for your papers to be double spaced so that it will be easier for them to read or write comments. Use this format to your advantage. Print out your paper doubled spaced so that you will be able to write your own comments in. Use the columns to write in what you missed, or what you think should be changed. Circle words you don’t think fit. A double spaced paper allows you to manipulate your paper more efficiently.

3. Leave aside for a few days. This is an important one. Leave it aside for about a week, if possible and if not, a couple days will do. When you pick up your paper a week later, it will be fresh and not primed in your working memory. Having your paper primed in your working memory makes it really easy to look over mistakes.

4. Have someone read it over. Someone else’s opinion is an invaluable tool when doing a paper. They will tell you what makes sense, what doesn’t and what needs more work. They will also find the simple mistakes that are often looked over.

5. Turn spell check on. As silly as this is, I hear a lot of complaints from teachers and teacher’s assistants that common words are not spelled correctly. For example, the word essential is easy to misspell, essential, and even easier to overlook. But the last paper I corrected, someone had obviously forgotten to turn on spell check. Don’t have spell check? YahooMail, Hotmail or Gmail offers a spell check option. Copy and paste into an email to correct it!

6. Keep an eye on sentence meaning and grammar errors. Spell check is not without errors. The cat rode the dog into the sky. Spell check will obviously not tell you the previous sentence make absolutely no sentence. Pay attention when correcting.

7. Read one sentence at a time In order to check spelling, read sentences backwards paying specific attention to each word. Reading the sentence backwards will get rid of the automatic reading of sentences that makes it easy to miss spelling errors.

8. Correct with a bright colored pen – highlight even. There is nothing worse than trying to find what you corrected after having used a black pen. Using a red pen or highlighting your mistakes will make it easy to go back and find where exactly you need to correct.

9. Make paragraphs. This is another mistake I see often when correcting papers. Either there are no paragraphs or there are too many. Quick way to know whether or not to make a new paragraph is to ask yourself whether what you are about to write is a new idea, or new point. If it is, paragraph it.

10. Make sentences as simple as possible. You may understand what you are writing but that does not mean the person reading will,

These quick and easy tips on editing and proofing will help you write a better term paper or a better work report. After practicing them they will become automatic and effortless. Some points may not work for you…trial and error will help you decide which are good for you. Writing a paper without mistakes is easier than you think.

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