writing process of proofreading

The Writing Process: Revising, Editing, and Proofreading

Polishing your manuscript isn't just about typos. It's a three-step process (revise, editing, proofreading) to take your writing from good to great.

Updated on June 5, 2024

Have you ever come across a piece of writing that should have been enjoyable or informative, but instead, its disorganized nature or numerous typos left you feeling disappointed and distracted? This is the consequence of poor editing and underscores the importance of refining your manuscript.

Now that you've drafted all the sections of your manuscript, it's time to add some polish to make it really shine. Achieving this level of excellence is not a one-and-done effort, but rather a multi-step process that requires revising, editing, and proofreading.

You may be asking “Why is it so important to approach these steps separately?” Let’s start by looking at some of their general characteristics:

Revising - In this step, you should refine the content's structure, clarity, and overall coherence to ensure that each section effectively contributes to the manuscript's narrative.

Editing - This is a deeper dive into the writing to enhance readability, consistency, and style and transform ideas into eloquent prose.

Proofreading - At this stage, you should scrutinize every word and punctuation mark to ensure flawless execution and preparation for publication.

By embracing this comprehensive approach, you'll enhance both the overall quality and value of your manuscript. These simple steps not only improve accessibility but also increase the likelihood of reaching a broader audience and getting published.

Now that we understand some of the implications of polishing a manuscript, let’s explore how to make that happen.

Before sharing your manuscript with anyone, such as your professor, a journal, or a publisher, it's crucial to revise it thoroughly. This step isn't just about fixing typos. It's about making sure your ideas are clear and well-organized.

Think of it as giving your work a final polish before it goes out into the world. Taking the time to revise your manuscript shows that you care about your writing and want to make sure it's the best it can be.

Here are some tips:

Practical Tips

Review your writing for clarity and conciseness.
Check for consistency in formatting, style, and tone throughout your document.
Pay attention to transitions between paragraphs and sections.
Proofread meticulously for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.
Take breaks during the revising process.
Use convoluted language or excessive jargon.
Overlook inconsistencies that disrupt the flow of your manuscript.
Neglect transitions, as they guide the reader smoothly through your ideas and arguments.
Rely solely on spell checkers, which may miss context-specific errors or homophones.
Revise for extended periods without breaks, as fatigue can lead to overlooking errors or becoming less receptive to feedback.
Clarity and conciseness are crucial for effective communication, so ensure every word contributes meaningfully to your message.
Consistent formatting, style, and tone lead to a cohesive reading experience and enhance professionalism.
Transitions help readers navigate your writing smoothly, improving comprehension and engagement.
Careful proofreading is essential for polishing your work and maintaining credibility.
Breaks are necessary to prevent burnout and maintain mental sharpness throughout the revising process.

Actionable Tips

Set your piece aside for several hours or days before revising.
Print out your paper and use red pen, highlighters, and sticky notes for analysis.
Read your document out loud to yourself and a colleague for feedback.
Ask others, especially from your target audience, to read and suggest improvements.
Utilize Track Changes or similar features to keep track of revisions and suggestions.
Rush through the revision process.
Rely solely on digital editing tools.
Assume you catch all errors by just reading silently.
Limit feedback to only a few individuals.
Disregard suggested changes without consideration.
Take the time to step away and come back with a fresh perspective.
Sometimes, physical annotations can highlight areas for improvement that may be missed on screen.
Vocalizing your writing can help identify awkward phrasing or grammatical mistakes.
Seek diverse perspectives to ensure your writing resonates with a broader audience.
Even if you don't agree initially, consider any feedback and decide whether it enhances your piece.

While revision is an essential pre-submission step for your manuscript, it is often an iterative process. Reviewers frequently offer feedback that requires additional revisions.

After addressing these comments, the manuscript undergoes another review round. This ensures all issues are resolved and any new questions or concerns are adequately addressed.

Once revisions are complete, it's time to shift gears to the editing stage. Editing focuses on the finer details of your manuscript to enhance clarity, coherence, and style.

Paying close attention to sentence structure, word choice, paragraph transitions, and overall readability is key. Seek opportunities to streamline your writing, eliminate repetition, and maintain a consistent tone and voice.

Keep these points in mind:

Review and refine the language for clarity.
Pay attention to sentence structure and coherence.
Check for consistency in writing style and tone.
Streamline prose by eliminating unnecessary repetition.
Take your time editing, reading through it several times while taking breaks in between.
Sacrifice clarity or simplicity for complexity.
Rely solely on spell checkers and AI to edit your manuscript.
Use jargon, unnecessary acronyms, or cliches.
Simply rephrase the same information to achieve length.
Rush through the editing process or wait until the last minute.
Ensure that your writing is clear and easy for your intended audience to understand. Clarify any ambiguous or convoluted sentences, and simplify complex concepts without sacrificing accuracy.
Keep readers engaged by varying your sentence length and structure. Ensure smooth transitions between sentences and paragraphs to keep ideas flowing logically.
Provide a cohesive reading experience by avoiding abrupt shifts in tone or style that may confuse or distract the reader.
Remove redundant phrases or words that do not contribute to your writing. Aim for conciseness without sacrificing essential information or nuance.
Give yourself plenty of time for the editing process. Read the manuscript silently, aloud, and to others in both digital and printed formats to catch as many errors as possible.

Beyond polishing language and ensuring clarity, the editing phase offers a unique opportunity for reflection and refinement. It's not just about polishing the surface, it's about going deeper to reveal the heart of your message.

Take this time to analyze not only the words on the page but also the underlying ideas they convey. Challenge yourself to explore new perspectives, refine your arguments, and improve the overall impact of your manuscript.

Proofreading

After revising and editing your manuscript, the final step is proofreading, a crucial quality assurance checkpoint in the writing process. During this careful examination, you should review your manuscript for typographical, spelling, punctuation, and other minor errors overlooked during editing.

Carefully reviewing your text line by line is essential to catch any remaining errors and eliminate inconsistencies before submission or publication. Though often undervalued, proofreading ultimately affects the quality and reach of your manuscript.

Let’s consider these fundamentals:

Practical Tips

Carefully review your work for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
Ensure proper punctuation usage, including commas, periods, apostrophes, and quotation marks.
Watch out for typographical and word choice errors.
Verify factual accuracy, including dates, statistics, names, and other details.
Check for formatting inconsistencies, such as font styles, headings, and spacing.
Rely only on spell checkers, as they may miss certain errors or auto-correct incorrectly.
Proofread while distracted or multitasking but rather prioritize focus during this step.
Neglect taking breaks between writing and proofreading.
Expect AI or other tools to know when something is not factual.
Forget to double-check your professor’s or journal’s requirements.
Remember that spell checkers are not foolproof, as they often miss homophones or replace words with similarly sounding ones. Also, pay close attention to mistakes with subject-verb agreement and pronoun usage that can affect professionalism and clarity.
Inaccurate punctuation can change the meaning of a sentence or make it difficult to understand. Take your time and eliminate distractions that may cause you to overlook punctuation errors.
Mistakes like missed or duplicated words, incorrect spacing, or improper capitalization are sneaky and may go unnoticed. Using the wrong word or phrase can change the intended meaning of your writing or make it unclear.
Incorrect information can undermine the credibility of your work. Proofreading backward, starting from the end of your document, can help you focus on individual elements and catch factual errors more effectively.
Consistent formatting enhances the professionalism and readability of your manuscript. Most journals clearly outline formatting requirements in their 'Instructions for the Authors' or 'Submission Guidelines’ sections.

Actionable Tips

Take a break between writing and proofreading.
Read your work aloud to identify awkward phrasing, missing words, or other errors.
Use proofreading tools like spell checkers, grammar checkers, and style guides as aids.
Try reading your work backwards to focus on individual elements rather than the overall flow.
Seek feedback from trusted colleagues or professionals to gain a fresh perspective.
Rush through the proofreading process but set aside dedicated time for thorough review.
Proofread while distracted or multitasking.
Rely exclusively on automated tools; manually review your work to catch nuanced errors.
Start proofreading from the beginning, as this can lead to overlooking errors in later sections.
Hesitate to ask for help; a second set of eyes can catch errors you may have missed.
Stepping away from your work for a while allows you to return to it with renewed perspective. This makes it easier to spot errors that may have been overlooked when you were immersed in writing.
Reading aloud engages a different part of your brain and can help uncover errors that may not be obvious when reading silently. It also allows you to assess the flow and rhythm of your writing.
While automated editing tools are helpful, they are not infallible. Use them as a supplement to manual proofreading, as they may miss nuanced errors or inaccuracies that require human judgment.
Reading backward disrupts the natural flow of the text, allowing you to concentrate on individual sentences. This method can help you catch errors that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Another set of eyes can offer valuable insights and catch errors that you may have missed. Choose individuals who are familiar with your writing style and can provide constructive feedback.

Use these tips to create a proofreading checklist that will streamline this phase and guarantee thoroughness. By sharing it with colleagues and other proofreaders, you not only retain some control over the process but also ensure consistency.

Tailoring the checklist to your specific needs and writing style increases efficiency and improves the overall quality of your manuscript. From grammar and spelling to formatting and consistency, a personalized checklist helps you stay organized and methodical.

To get additional insights and assistance from industry professionals, visit aje.com . Here are some examples of the useful resources found in their Author Resource Center :

How to Edit Productively - Provides actionable insights on productive editing. It outlines strategies for keeping an open mindset, allocating dedicated time, and gaining perspective by stepping back from your work, all aimed at accelerating the revision process.
AJE Tips for Publication Success - A guide for all sections of a manuscript. The “Editing Tips” section offers specific examples of common errors and their solutions.
A Three-Phase Workflow for Efficient Manuscript Editing - Advice from an editor describing a useful strategy for reading through a colleague's manuscript and offering suggestions. Helps authors ask editors the right questions.
How to Choose the Best AI Editing Tool for Academic Writing - Explores the different types of AI writing tools and makes suggestions for when and how to use them. Takes the confusion out of choosing the right tool for the job.
5 Benefits of Pre Submission Review - Offers valuable insights into reviewer responses to clarify ambiguous areas and enhance research communication practices. Saves time for authors, prevents setbacks, and improves their chances of publication or funding.
What is Punctuation in English? [an intro for academics] - Outlines the significance of punctuation in English. It highlights common punctuation marks such as the period, comma, question mark, and exclamation point, with examples illustrating correct and incorrect usage.

Final Thoughts

Polishing and refining your manuscript through revising, editing, and proofreading offers the opportunity to transform your informational document into a compelling narrative. It's not just about conveying data but also sharing the story of your research journey.

Embrace each step as a chance for growth and transformation, revealing the true quality of your work through meticulous attention to every word and punctuation mark. Consider the impact polished writing can have on your audience, credibility, and overall success as a researcher and writer.

Armed with the insights and strategies shared here, reflect on how you can elevate your own writing. Let these principles guide you as you strive to captivate readers, convey your message effectively, and achieve your writing goals.

Together, let’s embark on this quest of creative exploration and discovery to shape your manuscript into a masterpiece that inspires and captivates readers around the world.

Charla Viera, MS

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Proofreading can be a difficult process, especially when you’re not sure where to start or what this process entails. Think of proofreading as a process of looking for any inconsistencies and grammatical errors as well as style and spelling issues. Below are a few general strategies that can help you get started.

General Strategies Before You Proofread

General strategies while you proofread, when you are done.

Make sure that you leave plenty of time after you have finished your paper to walk away for a day or two, a week, or even 20 minutes. This will allow you to approach proofreading with fresh eyes.
Print out a hard copy. Reading from a computer screen is not the most effective way to proofread. Having a hardcopy of your paper and a pen will help you.
Have a list of what to look for. This will help you manage your time and not feel overwhelmed by proofreading. You can get this list from previous assignments where your instructor(s) noted common errors you make.
Don’t rush . Many mistakes in writing occur because we rush. Read slowly and carefully to give your eyes enough time to spot errors.
Read aloud to yourself. Reading a paper aloud encourages you to read each word and can help you notice small mistakes.
Read aloud to a friend and have the friend give you oral feedback.
Have a friend read your paper aloud while you don’t read along.
Use the search in document function of the computer to look for common errors from your list.
Read from the end. Read individual sentences one at a time starting from the end of the paper rather than the beginning. This forces you to pay attention to the sentence itself rather than to the ideas of the paper as a whole.
Role-play. While reading, put yourself in your audience's shoes. Playing the role of the reader encourages you to see the paper as your audience might.
Have a friend look at your paper after you have made all the corrections you identified. A new reader will be able to help you catch mistakes that you might have overlooked.
Make an appointment with a Writing Lab tutor if you have any further questions or want someone to teach you more about proofreading.
Ask your teacher to look at the areas you usually have trouble with to see if you have made any progress.

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Editing and Proofreading

It can be difficult for writers to see problems in their own work. However, writers can be effective at editing and proofreading by using some simple techniques. It is best if you can take a break from your writing before you start this part of the process, so you can create some distance from your work.

How are editing and proofreading different?

Writers sometimes use editing and proofreading interchangeably; however, each is a different step in the writing process. Editing, sometimes called revising, typically involves a more in-depth examination of the document and can sometimes result in substantial changes in order to improve the overall quality of the work. On the other hand, proofreading comes later in the writing process, once bigger edits have been made, and is usually more concerned with surface level corrections, such as checking grammatical accuracy and fixing any typing errors. Whether you’re editing or proofreading, each is valuable to improving the overall quality of your document.

The Writing Process: Prewriting, Researching, Drafting, Revising Content, Revising Organization, Editing (highlighted), Proofreading (highlighted), and Publishing

According to Merriam-Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, edit means,

Prepare (as literary material) for publication or public presentation,
To assemble (as moving picture or tape recording) by cutting and rearranging,
To alter, adapt or refine especially to bring about conformity to a standard or to suit a particular purpose.

When you edit, become a critical reader of your document. You can do that by placing time between yourself and the document. When you return to it, you will bring the eyes of a reader rather than of a writer. In addition to using your eyes differently in order to re-see your document, listen to it. Sometimes what may look fine on the page sounds awkward to the ear. Read your paper out loud. This practice is especially important if what you have written will later be presented aloud.

At this stage, look for clarity in your writing. Are your sentences clear and easy to follow? Does the wording get confusing? Is there any awkward phrasing?

You could also review the essay for tone. The tone you use will depend on the type of writing, so make sure your word choices coincide with the genre and assignment directions. For example, in an informative essay, you should avoid sounding angry about the topic or including opinionated word choices.

Lastly, vary your word choices and sentence structures to avoid sounding repetitive. For instance, you don’t want to use “also” ten times in one essay. Reading out loud can help identify where you use the same word multiple times. It can also sound monotonous when sentences all start the same, are the same length, or have the same structure. This choppy wording can be seen in the following sample: “She is hungry. She wants lunch. She likes the sandwich shop. She will go there.” To edit this sample, you could write: “Maria is hungry and wants lunch. Soon, she will go to her favorite restaurant, the sandwich shop.”

Transitions:

Once the ideas of your paper are set, it is time to add in transitions between those ideas. Transitions guide readers through your essay, showing them how one idea connects to the next. When adding transitions, consider the following:

Choose transitions based on the situation. Are you adding information, contradicting your previous point, providing an example, or concluding a point? All of these would require different transition phrases. See Transitional Devices (Purdue OWL) for some common transition words and phrases.

Use transitions when moving from one body paragraph to the next. These transitions could be words or phrases (however, in addition, as a result) or full sentences connecting the main points of the two paragraphs. For example: Beyond expanding children’s imaginations, reading increases their vocabulary.

Include transitions between some of the sentences within a paragraph as well. They are particularly useful when starting a specific example (for instance), moving to a new supporting idea (additionally), or concluding the paragraph (overall).

Vary your transitions throughout the paper so you do not use the same ones repeatedly.

While transitions are very useful, you do not need a transition at the start of every sentence. Use them moderately.

Formatting:

Take a careful look at the formatting of your work. Does your paper follow the prescribed guidelines? Are your in-text citations formatted properly? We have guides on the three most popular citation styles: APA Format , Chicago Format , and MLA Format .

Unless you are instructed otherwise by your professor, arrange your paper in this order:

abstract (if requested)
outline (if requested)
appendix (if any)
explanatory endnotes (if any)
endnotes (if required by the citation system you use)
works cited, reference, or bibliography

Proofreading:

"Proofread" means to read for errors. Now that you have edited your writing, it is time to look for errors and correct them. During the revising and editing process you may have corrected some. It can be very helpful to take another break from your writing before you start to proofread. Check out the  Finding Common Errors (Purdue OWL)  resource.

Punctuation:

Now check for punctuation. Pay special attention to quotation marks, commas and semi-colons, spelling, and grammar. Carelessness here undercuts your credibility and casts doubt on the quality of your work. Review some punctuation rules under the Grammar Essentials at Excelsior OWL.

Proofreading Strategies:

Read your writing out loud, slowly and carefully.  Doing so will help you catch errors that you might otherwise not see. Watch for places where you pause, stumble or re-read because those might be trouble spots. If something sounds strange as you read it, there is probably a reason why. Look for any of the following:

Are you being consistent with the tense you are using?

Are there sentences that seem way too long or too short?

Do the subjects and the verbs agree?

Are the pronouns clear to the reader?

Is the voice appropriate for the audience?

Also watch for misspellings and homophones - your spell check function will not catch 'by' when you meant 'buy'. Don't depend on the word processor; the spell checker is not a proofreader.

Check your citations again. Make certain that all directly quoted information or ideas that are not your own are cited appropriately for the assignment.

It can also be helpful to read your writing out loud, sentence by sentence, from the end of your paper backwards to the beginning.

Finally, if you can, ask someone else to read your paper to you out loud so you can hear for yourself how it sounds. Today many computer programs, including Microsoft Word, also have Read Aloud functions so you can even have the computer read your paper to you. Remember, even professional writers have someone else's help with this part of the writing process.

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Revising and Editing

Proofreading

TIP Sheet PROOFREADING

Try to keep the editing and proofreading processes separate. If you're worrying about the spelling of a word or the placement of a comma during the revision and editing stages, you're not focusing on the more important development and connection of ideas that make a paper clear and convincing.

For revising and editing guidelines, first see TIP Sheet: Revising and Editing. PROOFREADING

Proofreading is the final stage of the writing process when the paper is evaluated for mechanical correctness, such as grammar, punctuation, spelling, omitted words, repeated words, spacing and format, and typographical errors. You should proofread only after you have finished all of your other revisions and editing.

Proofreading is a learning process. You are not just looking for errors; you are also learning to avoid making the same mistakes in the future. Handbooks and dictionaries are important resources. Keep them close at hand as you proofread. If you are not sure about something, look it up.

The proofreading process becomes more efficient as you develop and practice a systematic strategy. Learn to identify the specific areas of your own writing that need careful attention.

Hints for Successful Proofreading

Set your text aside for awhile (15 minutes, one day, one week) between writing and proofreading. Some distance from the text will help you see mistakes more easily.
Work from a printout, not the computer screen. Enlarge the print or change the font to give you a new perspective.
Use a blank sheet of paper or ruler to cover up the lines below the one you're reading. This technique keeps you from skipping ahead of possible mistakes.
Read very slowly. Read one word at a time. If possible, read out loud so that you can hear each word. Read the entire paper several times, looking for different errors with each reading. Read into a tape recorder, and listen carefully while you play it back.
Review comments on your old papers, and make a list of errors which were marked frequently. Prioritize your list. Read separately for each kind of error, following whatever technique works best for you to identify that kind of mistake.

Proofreading Strategies for Specific Errors

If you know by reviewing your instructor's comments that you frequently make one or more of the following grammatical errors, try the following suggested strategies to identify and correct your errors. Please note that this is only a limited list of possible mechanical errors. It will be up to you to determine other areas of special concern for you as a writer.

Examine each word in the paper individually. Move from the end of each line back to the beginning. Pointing with a pencil helps you see each word more distinctly. If necessary, check a dictionary to see that each word is spelled correctly. It is important to remember that a computer spell check can be helpful when writing your initial drafts, but won't catch mistakes with homonyms (such as they're, their , and there ) or certain typographical errors (such as writing he for the )

Subject/Verb Agreement

Find the main verb in each sentence. Match the verb to its subject. Make sure that the subject and verb agree in number (that is, both are singular or both are plural).

Pronoun Reference/Agreement

Skim your paper, stopping at each pronoun. Look especially at it, this, they, their , and them . Search for the noun that the pronoun replaces. If you can't find any noun, or if it is unclear which noun is being referred to, change the pronoun to a noun. If you can find a noun, be sure it agrees in number and person with your pronoun.

Parallel Structure

Skim your paper, stopping at key words that signal parallel structures. Look especially for and, or, not only...but also, either...or, both...and . Make sure that the items connected by these words are in the same grammatical form. For instance, "She likes golf, basketball, and soccer" rather than "She likes golf, basketball, and to play soccer." You might change "He is not only a great piano player but also plays the guitar well" to "He is not only a great piano player but also a good guitar player."

Compound Sentence Commas

Skim for the conjunctions and, but, for, or, nor, so , and yet . See whether there is a complete sentence (containing a subject and verb) on each side of the conjunction. If so, place a comma before the conjunction.

Introductory Commas

Skim your paper, looking only at the first two or three words of each sentence. Stop if one of these words is a subordinate conjunction (such as while, if ), a transition word (such as nevertheless, however) , a participial phrase (such as serving four years in the Navy, he ...), or a prepositional phrase (such as in contrast, about two years ago ). If you can hear a break or pause after the phrase when reading aloud, place a comma at the end of the introductory phrase or clause (before the independent clause).
Look at each sentence to see whether it contains an independent clause (subject and verb). Pay special attention to sentences that begin with subordinate conjunctions (such as because, if , or when ) or phrases such as for example or such as . See if the fragment might be just a piece of the previous sentence that mistakenly got separated by a period. If so, attach it to the sentence. If not, add the missing subject or verb.

Run-On Sentences

Review each sentence to see whether it contains more than one independent clause. Start with the last sentence of your paper, and work your way back to the beginning, sentence by sentence, stopping at every comma. Run-on sentences can be revised four ways. You may make the clauses into separate sentences, join the clauses with a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction ( and, but, for, or, nor, so, and yet ), join the clauses with a semicolon if the sentences are closely related, or restructure the sentence (for example, by adding a subordinate conjunction).

Plurals and Possessives (Use of apostrophes)

Skim your paper, stopping only at those words which end in s . See whether or not an apostrophe is needed in order to indicate possession. If the words can be inverted, and Maria's book can be changed to the book of Maria, then the apostrophe is correct. If a word ends in s simply because it is plural, there should be no apostrophe.

Only now should you ask someone else to read through your paper to check for anything you might have missed. By revising, editing, and proofreading on your own first, you will ultimately improve your own ability to write well.

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Writers Workshop

Editing and Proofreading

As you prepare your final draft, you’ll want to leave time to edit and proofread. Editing strategies focus on making your text more readable by assessing clarity, style, and citations, while proofreading strategies focus on eliminating errors and mistakes in grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting. Follow the steps below to edit and proofread your draft.

Editing Strategies

Make it a verb (e.g. customize).
Revise the sentence to have a clearer subject and verb.
Make it active (e.g. “The committee prepared the report”).
Simplify that sentence’s subject.
Consider breaking up sentences longer than 3 lines.
Combine them.
Replace it with an active verb.
Be more specific.
Determine: Are they necessary? Can they be more specific?
Pick one to use instead.
Determine: Do you need this? Is there another word you could use?

Proofreading Strategies

Proofreading is usually the very last step in the writing process, providing a final check for any errors or issues before the writing is shared. Remember that while editing may occur throughout the writing and revision process, proofreading focuses on more sentence-level elements toward the end of the process. Here, you’re looking for issues like spelling errors, typos, incorrect or missing punctuation—really, anything that doesn’t look or sound right. Here are some tips for getting started: