Proofread Essay

Have you ever begun to read an essay but couldn’t finish it because there were so many spelling or grammar mistakes? This is what happens when you don’t proofread. Proofreading is a step in the writing process that ensures your essay is error-free. It helps you to avoid careless mistakes and elevates your work.

Proofreading an Essay Meaning

Proofreading involves checking your work for spelling, grammar, or typographical errors. This is usually the last step you take before submitting your essay to your teacher or professor for evaluation. Proofreading involves carefully reading through your completed essay, which may take time, but it is worth it!

Examples of How to Proofread Your Essay

When proofreading an essay, the three main areas you should check are spelling, grammar, and typography. Here are some common spelling and typography mistakes you can search for when proofreading.

Spelling

It can be easy to make simple spelling mistakes when writing an essay, but there are some common words to pay special attention to while proofreading. The following list includes some of the most commonly misspelled and misused words:

• accommodate not acomodate

• believe not beleive

• definitely not definately

• foreign not foriegn

• piece not peice

• principal vs. principle

• affect vs. effect

• their vs. they’re vs there

• it’s vs. its

• you’re vs. your

Proofreading your writing can help you discover misspelled or misused words. If you know you are prone to misspelling certain words often, keep an eye out for them and make a special effort to make sure they’re written correctly. One helpful way to avoid misspelled words is to use a proofreading service or editing tool. You can use the spell check feature commonly provided by most word processing software or download additional editing software to scan your essay for spelling errors.

Typography

Checking for typographical errors involves checking for proper capitalization and punctuation in your essay. Some areas you’ll need to pay special attention to include:

• Ending punctuation

• Use of a single or double quotation marks

• Capitalization of proper nouns

• Proper use of commas

• Proper use of apostrophes

However, quality essay typography involves more than just these areas. It also ensures that our spacing is correct and that the font used is consistent.

Look at both essay paragraphs below. Which one is easier to read?

Here's the first example.

Fig. 1 - Example 1.

Here's the second example.

Fig. 2 - Example 2.

In the first image, the Title's font size is smaller than the essay's text, and the font face is inconsistent with the essay. You can also see that the first two lines are spaced differently than the rest of the article, and if you look closely, you can see many punctuation and capitalization errors.

Now, look at the second image. The font face and size are consistent, the spacing is consistent, and it is free from punctuation and capitalization errors.

Try to make your essay look more like the first example!

Proofreading Your Essay for Grammatical Errors

Grammar mistakes can be hard to find on your own, but being aware of common errors can help avoid confusing your reader. Some common grammatical errors include:

• Incorrect verb tense

• Subject-verb disagreement

• Incorrect use of pronouns

• Incomplete sentences

• Misplaced or dangling Modifiers

Incorrect Verb Tense

Verbs can be used to express when an action is taking place. The chart below shows some of the different tenses you can use and examples of what they express.

You'll want to ensure that you use the same verb tense consistently throughout your essay. If you shift from one verb tense to another, you can confuse your reader or make a grammatical error that brings down the level of your writing.

In the example below, the first sentence uses the past tense verb went but then later uses the present tense verb eat. These two verbs don’t agree, which makes the sentence confusing. In the second example, the past tense verb went is used along with the past tense verb ate. These two verb tenses agree with each other and clearly express the author’s idea.

Subject-Verb Disagreement

Make sure that the subject aligns with the verb in each sentence. For example, a singular subject is connected to a singular verb form, and a plural subject is connected to a plural verb form. In the example below, the subject David is singular, but the verb swim is a plural verb form. So, in this case, the subject and the verb don’t agree.

Incorrect Use of Pronouns

Pronouns are used to replace a particular noun so that it doesn’t have to be repeated in a sentence. This noun is called the antecedent. However, you must confirm that the pronoun you choose to use matches the original antecedent. One way to do this is to circle the pronouns and antecedents in your writing and make sure the gender and number of both words agree. In the example below, the antecedent each puppy is singular, but the pronoun their is plural. So here, the pronoun and antecedent do not agree, but in the second sentence, they agree with each other.

Incomplete Sentences

Check that each sentence in your essay is complete and contains a subject, verb, and clause. Sometimes you can combine two incomplete sentences to make one complete sentence. In the first example below, a complete sentence is followed by a sentence fragment. In the second example, you can see that combining the first sentence with the fragment creates a complete thought.

Misplaced or Dangling Modifiers

Misplaced or dangling Modifiers are words, phrases, or clauses that aren’t connected well to the subject they intend to modify. To fix this, you can change the position of the modifier in the sentence or add a word closer to the modifier to clearly identify the subject being modified. Circle the modifier in your sentence and the subject it is modifying. Make sure the modifier isn’t accidentally modifying another word in your sentence. In the example below, the modifying phrase with my camera is correctly modifying the word we, but also accidentally modifying the word goat. This makes it sound like the goat has my camera, which is not the intent. You can clarify the meaning of this sentence by changing the position of the modifier in the sentence.

Proofreading Checklist for Essays

Now that you've considered the mistakes to look for in your completed essay, try to apply what you've learned.

Print a Copy of Your Essay

Mistakes are harder to catch when reading on a screen. A hard copy will allow you to find and mark down errors more easily and give you a fresh perspective. Circle each punctuation mark to make sure it’s the correct mark for your sentence. Highlight your subject and verb to ensure they agree and check your verb for Tense Consistency.

Create a checklist using what you've learned here. A checklist can help you suss out any error plaguing your essay.