PROOFREADING

Mini-lesson

(Step 4 of WHAT GOOD

WRITERS DO . . . )

Warm up –

In 4 sentences (or more),

explain how YOU

proofread your papers and

how much time

(approximately) that you

spend proofreading.

HUH? Read and correct:

Potluck supper: prayer and medication to follow

• Kids re-read their writing as they

would read anything else – and

think that they have proofread.

Reading is done quickly;

proofreading is done s-l-

o-w-l-y.

When we read, we read for

comprehension. Our eye

movements are too rapid, too rapid

to see the details within words –

failing to see some words at all.

Arocdnicg to rsceearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it

deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the

olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in

the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can

sitll raed it wouthit pobelrms. Tihs is buseace the huamn

mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as

a wlohe.

We see what we want to

see; the brain [self]

corrects for omissions

and oversights.

Professional editors proofread as

many as ten times. Publishing

houses hire teams of readers to

work in pairs, out loud.

~ Virginia Tech Writing Center

Proofreading Strategies

1. Read your paper backwards (bottom to top)

2. Have a PARTNER read your paper OUTLOUD to YOU.

3. As you read your paper POINT to EACH word.

4. WAIT hours or days before you reread your paper.

• Your job as a proofreader is

to do ANYTHING that slows

your eye down.

•WHY??

Our job as teachers is NOT to proofread &

edit student papers, but to create

competent self-editors who don’t need us.