If ur speling iz inkorect, you are either under-qualified for academic writing, or you didn’t pay enough attention. Flawless spelling indicates attention to detail, and it may become a deal breaker in certain situations. Any doubt? Ask a seasoned journal editor.
Please note: we are not talking about editing here. The content you write, along with the grammar, vocabulary and style you use, is a completely different story, and should be done anyway – way before proofreading happens.
What we intend to discuss here, is about that final 0.5% touch that can make the difference between “good” and “great”. The tiny mistakes that stay under the radar and may go unnoticed – even after several rounds of proofreading.
Here are some tips that apply to both editing and proofreading, according to the Writing Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [1]: i) Get some distance from the text after you finished writing, (both physically and time-wise), ii) Decide what medium lets you proofread most carefully (on-screen vs. hard copy), iii) Format your document differently (to avoid “author’s blindness” after reading the same thing too many times), iv) Find a quiet place to work (wherever you can concentrate and avoid distractions), v) Do your editing and proofreading in several short blocks of time (depending on your attention span).
Reading the document out loud [2] to yourself or to someone else can also be helpful, along with getting into a “correcting mindset”, not a writing one [3] before you even get started with proofreading.
We cannot stress enough the importance of “getting someone else to do it”. Before you submit any of your writing anywhere, proofread it yourself until you are unable to spot any more issues. Then go find at least one extra pair of eyes to check it, (also called “two-men rule” or “four-eyes principle”). An unbiased, fresh look of a qualified person is key to get proofreading done properly.
Gud lukk!