1. Go away from your paper for a while after you have finished writing it. Come back later to proofread it with a fresh mind. It is much easier to spot errors when you distance yourself from the actual writing
2. Read each sentence out loud. This forces you to slow down and pay attention to each word and phrase. Sometimes you will realize you have spoken something (a word, a word ending, a pause where punctuation is needed, etc.) that you did not write, but should have
3. Have someone else read your paper out loud to you. In this way you will find out what you really wrote, including any errors that you missed in your own writing.
4. Start proofreading the last sentence in you paper and work you way sentence by sentence to the beginning. This helps you to distance yourself from the content of the paper so that you can focus more completely on spotting errors.
5. Cover the paper with a piece of paper; slowly move the paper down to reveal one line at a time. This helps you to focus on the words that are actually on the paper and make it easier to spot errors.
6. Focus on commonly made serious errors. The most common serious errors that students tend to make are run-ons, fragments, verb form errors and verb agreement errors, try to look specifically for errors in those four areas.
7. Learn the types of errors you tend to make and focus on those. You can learn about the types of errors you make from teachers' comments on you paper or in conference with the *lab staff. analyze your most common error types and look for them when you proofread.
8. Try to distinguish between sentences you know are correctly written, sentences you think are correctly written and sentences you're completely unsure about. When you think you have followed rules correctly you can often double check by looking up the rules in a handbook. if you are really unsure about the correctness of a sentence, that is a great time to ask a *lab staff person for help.
*I was given these handouts by an English teacher I had for English 1A
* Also when lab staff is talked about on this hand out. It is talking about the English Labs that are available in the library. Most schools have an English Lab time where students can attend and get help in English.
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