It is a fact acknowledged all over the world of academia, that proofreading your work is probably even harder than writing your work, especially when it is a long-term work, like your thesis or something. It requires careful detailed checks. Chances are, your edits are finally done and in place, and you are exhausted but now you need to proofread. Unfortunately, you can’t also neglect it. Proofreading is essential! Well, do not fear, here are some quick tips to help you out!
1) Determine English spelling or American spelling - This is very important, as academic articles and theses and dissertations require a certain consistency. Therefore, if you haven’t given much thought to it, determine if you want English spellings or American spellings. While they are similar, some minor differences exist such as the use of ‘z’ in some American spelled words vs. ‘s’ in English spellings. So whichever you would prefer, make sure you choose it and correct all the spellings to retain consistency.
2) Check all names are spelt correctly - Another very important thing to keep in mind is to make sure the spellings of all the names of people/ places etc are spelt correctly. It can be tricky and problematic if you end up making a mistake. So do make sure of this!
3) Make sure citations are in place - Citations are probably the most annoying thing when formatting. However, without it, you will face a charge of plagiarism which is the most serious crime that you can be accused of in academia. Choose a citation style, whichever suits you or whichever you have been asked to follow, carefully read and constantly refer to the guidelines while doing it to make sure this takes place. If you are feeling overwhelmed, you can even refer to various websites to help with this. However, make sure to double-check everything, from page numbers to names and titles of papers.
4) Read out loudly to yourself - While reading on screens allows you to scroll fast, it can also cause you to skip mistakes you might have made. The exercise would then be futile. To avoid this, read loudly to yourself! That way you go slower, hear what you have written, and your mistakes are easier to detect!
5) Find someone to do it - If you are still feeling overwhelmed, and if you can invest, the ideal solution is to find someone to do it for you, perhaps a friend or something! That way, a fresh pair of eyes will go over your article, which sometimes allows better output.
Good Luck!
