Making a (Proofreading) List and Checking It Twice

As you’ll see further down in this newsletter, I’ve been doing a lot of proofreading this year. Something I’ve done for years for my proofreading clients is to keep a proofreading checklist.

A checklist gives me a guide for completing each proofing project and helps make sure I don’t overlook any steps in the proofreading process.

When I make a proofreading checklist, I:

• Tailor it to each client and/or type of project
• Use a spreadsheet so I can easily check off each step as I go
• Refer to the checklist throughout the entire project—beginning, middle and end

If you’re doing proofreading of lengthy documents, or often proof several of the same types of documents, I highly recommend creating a checklist for yourself. In addition to the obvious (running a spelling/grammar check first), here are some other items you might want to include on a proofreading checklist:

✅ Custom corrections that are specific to a particular project, for example, if attorney needs to be used throughout rather than lawyer

✅ Common misspellings specific to that project, i.e., if form often shows up as from

✅ An acronym check; make sure they’re handled according to the desired style guide

✅ Character length for specific text, i.e., subject lines for email communications

✅ Capitalization use in headlines and subheads

✅ Correct number of spaces after a period (hint: nearly everyone uses just one space after a period these days!)

✅ Formatting concerns, such as if page numbers need to be at the top or bottom of a document

✅ Whether your edit tracking tool needs to be kept on or turned off before you send the document on

Make your list as simple or detailed as needed so you can be sure those instances of Sarah’s Sweets don’t show up as Sarah Sweats.

I hope these tips help you on future proofreading you do. Let me know if they do!

 

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What’s Been on My Plate

My end of first quarter check-in for 2025 shows that so far this year, I have:

💻  Written 9 articles

📝  Revised 5 blog posts

✏️  Proofread 602 pieces of content

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Discussion Questions

What’s up? I’d love to hear from you! Some things you might want to share:

• Have you ever used a proofreading checklist?
• What types of things do you commonly see overlooked when you’re proofreading?

 

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