As a proofreader, I proofread articles and manuscripts. In the bunch of skills, I have selected a few skills to proofread the manuscripts within the time limit.
To proofread the manuscript and articles on your own, you have to focus on the following:
The First Letter
Spellings, Punctuations, Abbreviations
Sentences Structures | Tense | Voices | Direct-Indirect Speech
Check Plagiarism
Content Title
You can follow the procedure and apply them. The results will be an error-free manuscript and article.
The First Letter of Paragraph
During the proofreading process, you have to read throughout the whole manuscript. You can start with any paragraphs/sentences by keeping the first letter capital.
Spellings, Punctuations, Abbreviations
It will be an embarrassment for both the author and the publisher. Assume your published book has mistakes such as misspelt spellings, punctuations, and wrong abbreviations. Then the reader will not pick that. So, proofread your content mindfully.
To save time, you can correct the misspelt spelling and punctuation with the help of online software. The most used software is Grammarly.
Sentences structures | Tense | Voices | Direct-Indirect Speeches | Model
The sentences written in the content are according to the flow of the conversations. Have you ever noted that when the team members are talking, their conversations involve sentences from the past, present, and future tenses at a time? Their sentences in conversation are not limited to tenses. It hovers around the voices and speeches, depending on the selected topic. While writing such content, it becomes difficult to understand.
A proofreader has to check whether the written content is understandable or not. This process is very time-consuming. The professionals have to inspect thousands of words. So, to review within the time limit, to check whether the content is hard to read or understand. They use a Software called Hemingway editor.
I advise you to use this software to check your content readability. Usually, the readability score must be below 10. And to reduce it more follow software instructions.
While using any software, be aware of the emotional flow of your content and check it manually as well. Sometimes software makes mistakes, so be truthful with your content. And your knowledge and be confident.
Check Plagiarism
In the publishing houses, submitted manuscripts, articles and journals undergo a plagiarism checking process. And it is done with the help of software.
So, before submitting your content, check it using any plagiarism detector software. If your content is poached, re-write it and create 100% unique content.
100% unique content is acceptable everywhere and published without any worry.
When you accept any manuscript/article for proofreading, initially check its uniqueness using 2-3 online plagiarism detection software. And assure it must be 100% plagiarism free. Once sure, it is unique. Apply proofreading process. Otherwise, return the content to the writer to re-write.
Content Title
The content title must be bold and clear. It should represent the written data theme. When you write it for your blog, before publishing it, please check the headline score of your blogpost’s title.
To check headline score, use the online software Headline Analyser. The recommended score is above 65.
Thus applying these steps, the resulted manuscripts and articles will be error-free. However, to make the content 100% error-free follow the procedure 2-3 times.