Proofreading is tedious but essential to completing a great paper. After all, why would you want to let a a string of misspellings, incorrect words, and punctuation errors obscure a carefully constructed argument that you've worked on for months?
So, instead of glancing your paper over in an attempt to rid yourself of it once in for all, adopt a new attitude towards proofreading. Be methodical, unconventional, and stealthy. Proofread like a ninja! Here's a few tips to help you do that:
Ninja Proofreading Rule #1: Outsmart the enemy. Print your paper out to proofread it. Like it or not, we are conditioned to proofread according to squiggly red and green lines. You might swear that you're not - that you don't trust those menacing lines, and since Clippy bit the dust, you are free from the tethers of the word-processor's built-in know-it-all-ness. But trust me, you rely on them to some degree. Printing out a copy to proofread allows you to release your paper from the crutches of spellchecker, and allows you to highlight, circle, and mark out errors and rewrites in a much more satisfying, tactile manner.
Ninja Proofreading Rule #2: Don't let your paper see it coming. Read from the bottom up. I don't mean literally read backwards (I'm not trying to kill you here - you're already half-dead at this point in your writing). Start at the end of your paper and work your way up, reading (forward) one paragraph at a time. Doing so will allow you to focus on structure, spelling, and punctuation because you'll be breaking up your reading into small, disordered chunks. That's what you want right now.
Ninja Proofreading Rule #3: Do it with style. Read the paper aloud, standing up, in a confident tone.. It really doesn't matter if you have an audience for this one, because only the act of reading aloud, word for word, will help you recognize the sneakiest errors, for example, where you accidentally wrote "form" when you meant "from." Purposely using an authoritative, even smug tone will not only prevent you from lapsing into a harried murmur (causing you to say "yada yada yada" and miss errors), but it will in fact highlight your errors by making you sound like a bit of an idiot.
Ninja Proofreading Rule #4: Attack when your paper least expects it. Don't proofread immediately after you've finished writing. I can almost guarantee that you will miss half of the mistakes existing in your paper if you try and proofread after spending 5 hours trying to perfect your conclusion. You need to give your eyes and your brain a break. Ideally, you can let it rest a day. At the very least, take an hour to leave the room and do something completely unrelated to your paper before returning to proofread. (Working on another paper does NOT count as something completely unrelated to your paper.)
Ninja Proofreading Rule #5: Make it like you weren't even there. Schedule an hour or two exclusively for proofreading. Disappear mysteriously (preferably in a ninja-like manner), and during this time, shun the outside world and proofread only.
Ninja Proofreading Rule #6: Allow no distraction. Do not rely on proofreading "as you go." Also, don't revise the copy of your paper on your computer as you proofread your printed-out copy. I don't care if you think it's more efficient, because it's not, really. All you'll end up doing is not really proofreading and not really revising. No matter how diligently you try to be when you do either of these things, chances are you've left some obvious mistakes in your paper. You might even add in new mistakes while you swap between reading and correcting two copies of your work.
Ninja Proofreading Rule #7: Respect that which is simple in appearance. My last piece of advice for ninja proofreading is this: don't leave revising your bibliography until the last minute. I promise you it will take about 4 times longer to proofread, edit, and perfect the formatting, punctuation, and styling of a bibliography than you think it will.
I'll leave you with some links about the proofreading process that I think you might find helpful. First, here's a link to UNC-Chapel Hill's proofreading handout. This covers all the bases in a non-ninja fashion, but is helpful nonetheless. Second, remember that just because something's grammatically correct doesn't mean it's actually correct. This rather amusing blog highlights this fact. Additionally, here's a video titled, "The the Impotence of Proofreading." This poem, if written, would entirely check out if one were to rely on a word processing spellchecker, but, as you will hear, you would NOT want to commit any of these errors in your paper. Warning: this video contains profanity. And finally, because I've always wanted to include a cat in this blog, here's a ninja kitty (who might want to proofread):
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
Good luck finishing up the Spring 2012 semester, and have a great break!
