How to get better at proofreading?

[SimonLayton]

I've been writing for long as I can remember and there's one thing evident whenever I sit down to read my rough drafts after I'm done with them: I suck at proofreading. SUCK. I can spot the basic and awkward stuff, but whenever I past it to someone else, they tend to find more mistakes than I do. While having another set of critical eyes is definitely an advantage, is there a way to improve your proofreading and editing skills? What should be common knowledge whenever its time to edit your draft, and basic grammar lessons to keep in mind always? Do you have your own way of doing it?

[fleet]

Write your dialog using a word processor with built in grammar and spell check. It will catch a lot of the errors. Have at least two other people review it afterwards.
Look at what the word processor found and what your other proofreaders found,. Then you'll know the kind of errors you commonly make and can watch for them.

[trooper6]

Also, proofread other people's work. It gives you "reader's eyes" and will make you better at proofreading and writing your own work. And, read a lot of well written work.

[Shaples]

Like Trooper said, reading polished writing can really help. A big part of being able to catch problems in your own writing is having an ear for what works well, and the only way to develop that is to read a lot. Knowing specific grammar rules can certainly help, but it's more important to be able to feel that a sentence isn't working, even if you don't have a technical explanation for why. On the flip side, if there are a few mistakes you're making over and over again, it might be worth looking up the rules for that type of sentence/word/whatever. That way, you know WHY it's wrong, not just THAT it's wrong, and you might stop making the mistake in the first place. Grammar Girl can be really helpful for this. They even have an editing checklist with common types of mistakes, examples of how to fix them, and explanations of relevant grammar rules.

Personally, I draft in a word processor (which, like fleet said, helps catch a lot of basic stuff), but I edit on paper. It's sort of bizarre, but the process of reading on paper rather than on a screen makes it MUCH easier to spot mistakes.

[trooper6]

Personally, I draft in a word processor (which, like fleet said, helps catch a lot of basic stuff), but I edit on paper. It's sort of bizarre, but the process of reading on paper rather than on a screen makes it MUCH easier to spot mistakes.

I'm going to second this tip from Shaples. I always do my editing on hard copy.

If you want to know my actual writing process it involves:
1. Outlining
2. Writing freely and without self-editing on something that isn't a full word processor. At this moment that means either on a pad of paper or on my iPad with bluetooth keyboard.
3. Transferring my writing to the real word processor and doing some light editing in the process...but not real editing, mostly just making a reverse outline to see the structure of what I actually have.
4. Printing out and doing real major editing on paper (but cuts/big reorganizations/lots of new writing).
5. Typing up edits then doing an assessment if there are still major things I need to write/edit. If so, go back to #4. If not, go to #6.
6. Use the computer's spell/grammar check. Finalize my formatting. Print out.
7. Do my fine, detail editing. This involves: 1) Trying to cut 10 words from every page and 2) Reading my text out loud to catch errors my eyes gloss over because I know my text too well by this point. Then type that up.
8. If I have time, put the text away for two days and do other things. Then with fresh eyes, go back to #6 & #7...try to avoid going back to number #4 & 5.
9. If I'm talking about a script for Renpy, this is where I put it into the renpy file.

[czxcjx]

Read more. You'll know what works and what doesn't when you have a huge database to compare to.

[Szmitten]

I've been writing for [as] long as I can remember and there's one thing evident whenever I sit down to read my rough drafts after I'm done with them: I suck at proofreading. SUCK. I can spot the basic and awkward stuff, but whenever I [passed] it to someone else, they tend to find more mistakes than I do. While having another set of critical eyes is definitely an advantage, is there a way to improve your proofreading and editing skills? What should be common knowledge whenever [it's] time to edit your draft, and basic grammar lessons to keep in mind always? Do you have your own way of doing it?

Read a lot. I don't know how old you are but brush up on whatever English Language courses/classes you did at school until all of this stuff is second nature and you don't even have to think it. In your post you:

-Skipped out "as"; that's fine, we all miss a word sometimes, spot it though. Read it out loud. There are optical illusions based on people not realising that a word is missing from a sentence, be thorough.
-Mispelled "passed" as "past". Know how to spell, know what you're saying.
-"Its" instead of "it's". "Its" is posession, "it's" is short for "it is".

Read, read, read. Learn, learn, learn. Put in the effort so that it becomes second nature, otherwise look something up if you're unsure. Practice proofing other people's writing too.

[SimonLayton]

Read a lot. I don't know how old you are but brush up on whatever English Language courses/classes you did at school until all of this stuff is second nature and you don't even have to think it. In your post you:

-Skipped out "as"; that's fine, we all miss a word sometimes, spot it though. Read it out loud. There are optical illusions based on people not realising that a word is missing from a sentence, be thorough.
-Mispelled "passed" as "past". Know how to spell, know what you're saying.
-"Its" instead of "it's". "Its" is posession, "it's" is short for "it is".

Read, read, read. Learn, learn, learn. Put in the effort so that it becomes second nature, otherwise look something up if you're unsure. Practice proofing other people's writing too.

I was waiting for someone to point out errors in my post, was afraid I did make some, haha. But thank you very much to everyone in the thread! I'll take all your tips to heart.

[pinkmouse]

As well as seconding all the other suggestions, I find a useful late-stage check is to format whatever I've been editing as html and open it in my browser. I find that with the different layout/font, previously invisible errors spring (embarrassingly!) into view.

[Mistik]

same here, and I HAVE to get second, third forth eye on my writing. Just will never make it myself. But thank goodness, that is what editors are for.