how you can manage with your proofreading works

1. Familiarization with the contents
At the initial stage of editing, you need to familiarize yourself with the material and determine the overall impression of it. This will answer the following questions:
a) is the text complete?
b) is its meaning clear?
C) is its structure logical?
d) does the content match the title?
Thus, before editing, you need to determine the semantic component of what is written, see the text with its disadvantages and advantages in General. This allows you to plan and correctly set editing tasks, plan the course of their solution, and provide the necessary edits. Editing can be of the following types:
– Proofreading. This is the easiest way to work with an article, because the editor only needs to correct minor errors in it.
– Reduction. This edit is used if the material is “blurred” and contains unnecessary information.
– Processing. Complex work on the content, which consists in improving the composition, checking information, improving the style and language.
– Alteration. This edit is applied to expert texts if their authors have valuable knowledge, but do not know the techniques of copywriting. Or if the article was not written well enough (alternatively, send the text to the author for revision).

2. Editorial analysis and making edits
At this stage, the editor gives a comprehensive description of the material after careful reading. In order to objectively evaluate the text, he acts as a strict critic, making the necessary edits. These edits usually relate to the following points:
– the sequence of presentation. It happens that the material is not arranged in order, then its logic is violated. To prevent readers from feeling disconnected, you need to stick to a written or mental plan.
– appropriateness of style. When slang and colloquialisms are used in business texts, readers feel dissonance. A good editor mercilessly identifies inappropriate constructions and speech patterns so that the language of the material is understandable to the target audience.

3. Check for grammatical and spelling mistakes (proofreading)
This is the final stage, when the editor once again delves into the material and their comments on it. It also independently corrects all typos and other mistakes.
The optimal format for cooperation between the editor and the author is when the former points out significant shortcomings in the text, and the latter corrects them. At the same time, both sides can conduct a dialogue, justifying their point of view.

8 tips for the author on fine-tuning the text:
1. Do not edit your text immediately, at least wait for a few hours after writing it; even better – in a day or two. So it is easier to see it with a “fresh eye” and as if from the reader’s side.

2. Reading the text aloud allows you to notice heavy and clumsy constructions and phrases. As soon as you “stumble” over them, change the wording of your thoughts.

3. Anything that interferes with the understanding of the content, makes it cumbersome, is subject to alteration or reduction. Be ruthless with suggestions that don’t work on the topic. Identify repetitions, clichés, and clerical errors. They are also subject to removal or replacement. The dictionary of synonyms is your faithful assistant in this.

4. Order the text on the page. Do not forget, each text has its own purpose, its own audience and, as a result, its own functional style, its own expressive and expressive lexical means.

5. Track the rhythm of the text. Break long complex sentences into short ones, simplifying the dependent parts. Each should express a complete and clear idea.

6. If the phrase cannot be edited, redo it radically. After all, the same idea can be conveyed in different ways.

7. On the Internet, you can find a lot of training material on editing and spelling, including text spelling editors. However, it is much more reliable to compare difficulties with the dictionary and reference books.

8. Well don’t be lazy to format the text before publication. It should contain sections or blocks with attractive and informative subheadings.

Do not neglect the editing of your texts, because it helps them become better!