Blog content is difficult to write at the best of times. Whether you’re writing for yourself, for a client, or on behalf of a business, so much time needs to be spent in research keywords, researching topics, gathering information and actually sitting down and writing it.
When you need to make it engaging and captivating for your reader while implementing SEO where you can. It’s a tough job, but more and more people are spending all their time on these aspects and then letting themselves fall sort when it comes to proofreading. Any errors in your blog content and your reputation and credibility is out the window.
To ensure that that doesn’t happen to you, here are nine essential ways to accurately and effectively proofread your blog content.
Editing & Proofreading are Different
To most of the writers, editing and proofreading blog content are two of the same basket, but this is not the case. Editing is where you’re actually editing the content itself, making sure the facts are right, and the overall content reads well.
“Proofreading, however, is looking for mistakes in the content, such as spelling mistakes, poor grammar or typos. Just because you’ve edited your content, it doesn’t mean that you’ve proofread it,” shares Matthew Bowler, a content proofreader for Paper Fellows.
Don’t Rely on the Computer
Most computers and word processors now come with built-in proofreading tools, such as spell checkers. However, these are not 100% accurate and can miss even the simplest of mistakes if you’re not careful.
With this in mind, it’s important not to rely on your computer solely but actually to use your own knowledge.
Forget the Content Itself
The editing process is the part where you edit the content to ensure that it makes sense and captivates your readers. When proofreading, you can forget all about this as you’re only looking for the professional writing side of things, guaranteeing accuracy.
Use Online Tools
When proofreading, you don’t have to do it alone. Instead, there is a number of tools you can use to make the proofreading process easier. Here’s some to get you started;
- Grammarix – A free online tool you can use to learn everything you need to know about grammar.
- Insure vs Ensure – A free online blog which is full of information on how to use grammar properly in your blog content.
- Essayroo – An online writing agency that can help you to improve your professional proofreading skills.
- State of Writing – An online blog full of resources to teach you everything there is to know about writing professional blog content.
- Custom Essay – An online writing and proofreading guide you can follow as a checklist, as recently featured by the Huffington Post in ‘Write Essays For Me’
- Easy Word Count – A free online tool for actively tracking and monitoring the word count of your blog content.
- UKWritings – An online writing service that can proofread your blog content on your behalf.
- Cite It In – A free online tool for managing the citations and references in your content.
Proofread in Chunks
Sometimes, it can help to break your content up into different sections, maybe one hundred words long each. Then you can read and proofread that section before taking a break and returning to the next, just to guarantee a high quality proofread.
Take Regularly Breaks
Proofreading is renowned for being the most boring of all writing processes, and it’s easy to lose focus, jeopardizing the quality of your work. Instead, take regular breaks to make sure your mind is fresh at all times.
Proofread Early in the Day
Hand in hand with the consideration above, organizing your schedule, so you’re proofreading in the mornings is ideal since you’re much more awake and alert and it will be much easier for you to spot problems in the content.
Be Thorough & Accurate
Once you’ve started proofreading, it’s easy to start skipping sections and just skimming over them. Most importantly, this includes the headers, headlines, sub-headings, and footnotes. Be sure to check them as well to make sure your content is 100% perfect.
Practice
As with any skill in life, the only way to get really good at something is to keep practicing over and over again. When it comes to proofreading, don’t just do it quickly and look at it. Instead, take the time to develop your skills and be the best and most accurate proofreader you can be.