Proofreading Tips and Tricks


Proofreading is an important part of a well-versed communicator's job. A post on Ragan’s PR Daily describes how to develop great proofreading skills.

Some things you’ll always want to check:

  • Missing or misspelled headers and footers, or non-sequential page numbers
  • Mismatching page references in a table of contents or in the body of the text
  • Bad, broken or misspelled links
  • Inconsistent or incomplete instructions
  • Incorrect photo captions
  • Misspellings or missing labels in graphs, tables or illustrations
  • Variations in style or formatting

Some tips to help you catch errors more easily:

  • Read the text out loud.
  • Make paragraphs smaller and sentences shorter.
  • Read backward, starting with the last sentence and proceeding in reverse to the top.
  • Take your time, and always read with fresh eyes.

If you have any questions about proofreading, reach out to University Relations at unews@umn.edu.