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Note: The article listed below was retrieved from an article bank; therefore, it could not be modified or edited by the Writing Docs' staff.
Ezine Article Writing Tips:
The Best Person to Proofread Your Articles
By Elaine Currie
When writing articles for publishing in ezines, it is vitally important to ensure that you pay attention to the small details. There are numberless small details that can help or hinder the way your readers are affected by your writing. These details include ensuring you use correct spelling, punctuation and grammar when writing an article. The style and tone of your writing must be appropriate to the subject matter. Other things to check are: whether any paragraph headers strictly reflect the content of the particular paragraphs; whether it be better to have a bullet pointed list instead of a comma separated list in a sentence; whether the article flows naturally.
The best way to pick up any lapses of attention to detail or small errors, is to have every article you write proofread before it is published. When you write articles for ezines, you should always without fail proofread and edit a finished article before submitting it for publication. The most effective way to perform your proofreading and editing is to leave it until at least 24 hours after you have finished writing your article. Then read it aloud to yourself and make any alterations you feel are required.
Proofreading your own articles is necessary as part of the final editing process. Reading the article aloud to yourself is an excellent way of checking that the article is easy to read and of picking up tiny errors that you would not otherwise have noticed. However, you are not the best person to do your own final proofreading because you are naturally biased. You should be able to correct many things, such as spelling errors or typos, but you will not object to things like flaws in your style or inappropriateness of tone. It is simply impossible for you to be impartial when judging your own efforts. There is also another thing that can only be checked by somebody else and that is whether the article makes sense. As you already know what you wanted to say, you cannot judge whether everything in the article perfectly clear or if some points require further clarification.
To make sure your proofreading and editing is effective, you should have your articles proofread by somebody with a good grasp of written English who you can trust to give you an honest opinion of your work. If paying for the services of a professional proofreader is within your budget, that is the easy solution to your problem. Otherwise, you will have to rely on relatives or friends to help you out and this can be tricky.
Don't have your work proofread by somebody who would worry about upsetting you if they find fault with your writing. If the verdict is going to be a thumbs down on an article or involves criticism that might be considered nit-picking, you need a proof-reader who will tell you the plain truth. For your part, you need to be able to accept the critical appraisal without taking the comments personally.
When deciding who you should ask to proofread your articles, it is usually better to avoid your parents and spouse or partner. People emotionally close to you might seem the best ones to ask for a favour but they are more likely to be too forgiving of your shortcomings and make allowances for tiny errors. In short, they have everything to offer that you don't want in a proofreader but they will be a great audience once your article is published.
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