Let's face it. People are lazy, and in general we're not getting any more energetic. When you just finished a paper for a college or high school class you don't want to sit there and proofread it. The problem is that if you don't proofread, you won't get a good grade. Some teachers are sticklers for grammar. No matter how well you write, no one is perfect. Teachers and professors want you to write a rough draft, a second draft, a third draft and finally a final draft; who are they kidding? Who's really going to do that?
Okay, now that all of the self-hating narcissists who enjoy reading their own work over and over have left the room, let me tell you how to get it done fast! I've put together a little list of tricks that you can use to get proofreading done in a few minutes. Because I know you're lazy, they are ranked from the least to the most amount of effort required.
Start with basics - spell check and grammar check. If you don't already do this then chances are you really don't care about doing well. This is absolutely the easiest way to check your document and catch the most obvious mistakes. You would be hard-pressed to find word processing software without at least spell check. Most will check it automatically and underline possible mistakes. Yes. Those red underlines on MS Word are probably mistakes.
Listen to your paper using text to speech software. This is undoubtedly the second easiest method to proofread your paper. This converts your text to speech (aka TTS) so you can hear all the mistakes. This is cool because you don't need to buy any software or install anything. Simply upload your document and they convert it into audio. Then download the MP3 and listen to it on your iPod. This way you don't have to sit in front of the computer. You could listen to it on a tts website, but I prefer listening while I work out. After all, we spend enough time in front of the computer screen without having to proofread on-screen.
Let someone else do it for you. How could it be easier? It really can't be easier. The only problem is finding someone who will actually read it for you. The best way is to get your parents or significant other to proofread for you. But if no one loves you, try emailing your paper to a few people and hopefully one of them will feel sorry for you and read your paper. The biggest problem with this method is that you will have to return the favor.
Read backwards - how is that easy? Do not do this unless you really hate yourself. If you really want to make sure that there are no mistakes, read your work backwards. You will catch every homophone or similar word mistake. You will also get a better idea about how you write. I am warning you, this method is like pulling teeth. I am not responsible for any self-inflicted injury resulting from reading your paper backwards.
If you like this article, please forward it to your friends. If you have any comments or suggestions, I'm all ears. Happy proofreading!
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