Take A Second Look

Any proofreader, professional or not, knows that the second readthrough is super important. You’ve done the first one, fixed all the obvious mistakes, devoured the accuracies the way a lioness devours a zebra, and then you’re suddenly at the end of your document. But your editing doesn’t end there.

The second readthrough is something everyone should do with their own documents, whether it’s someone else’s work you’re proofreading, or your own. If you don’t read your own work, how are you going to figure out if there’s anything wrong with what you put? I don’t notice my own typos on the first time around myself. You can use Word’s editor if you’re writing on Word, which will catch some errors, but it’s important to find and catch all the errors they miss yourself.

And trust me, you will make errors, no matter how good your content is. Everyone does, it’s no reflection on you. Go ahead, embrace it! I make mistakes, you make mistakes, we all make mistakes. It’s why the second readthrough is so important. Maybe you’ll be lucky. Maybe you’ll have found all your mistakes already. But usually, the second readthrough will help you find just one thing you’ve misssed.

Homonym Confusion

This is one of the most common mistakes in the English language. We have a lot of words that sound the same and look the same, but have totally different meanings. Most of them also have different spellings, which makes them a nightmare to differentiate. Common mistakes are between:

“There” and “Their” (One is to pinpoint a specific place, and the other is a possessive for a group of people – something that belongs to them).

“Too” and “To” (One is used to add something to a point, be it a person or a fact, and the other is used before a location).

and “Your” and “You’re”. (One is the possessive, something belongs to you, and the other is a contraction, meaning “You are”).

I’ve made some of those mistakes as a student, but I was always able to correct them before anyone else saw them. It’s very easy to make those mistakes, especially with “To” and “Too” – just don’t let your finger rest on the “O” key too long! It’s also something spellcheck can’t see, as you’ve spelled the word correctly – it’s just not the word you wanted. But of course, don’t worry too much. You know the spelling. Just give your work a good check to make sure no mistaken homonyms have crept in. They’re just as easy to fix, as they are to make.