Have you ever written content and felt that you did your best, only to post and later come to read and see errors flying around everywhere in your already published content?
Well, I have experienced it so many times, and it made me feel extremely bad. The impression it first gave me as the writer was that my content was poor, and I didn't give my work the proper attention.
When I started blogging, I was confronted with this challenge a lot. Thank God for constructive criticism, sometimes I won't even notice it, it is those who read my work that draw my attention to it, and you know that is somehow embarrassing.
So what is proofreading?
Simple, it is reading your content again, carefully reviewing it to correct the errors that you must have left in the content after writing it.
It is not possible to read your content just once and be able to spot all the errors in it. No matter how good you are, you might miss one error or the other; sometimes it can be a grammatical error, and other times it can be a spelling error.
As a writer, your content tells who you are. It is just like your outfit, those small errors are like stains on a white dress.
Your readers want to flow smoothly. They don't want to be obstructed by typing and grammatical errors. They dont want to be reading clustered words and clustered sentences without a proper paragraph to give them breathing space.
No one is perfect, that stands sure, but errors should not be scattered across your content. It gives you a bad name as a writer.
Your content may be juicy, but if it has a lot of wrong spellings or grammatical errors and the like, the quality would be reduced, and you know what happens to low-quality products? People tend to stay away from them.
Personally, whenever I am reading any content and I spot spelling or grammatical errors, my thoughts would be trapped there. Instead of focusing on the contents, what would be ringing in my mind is the error that I came across.
I will be trying to fix it in my head instead of trying to relate to the content. Sometimes the error gets so bad that one has to try to guess what the author is trying to communicate, and that's bad.
There are readers who cannot stand those errors. Once they go through your content and they discover one or more errors, they stop reading and stop visiting your blog.
So, as a writer, do your best to be an author who is obsessed with quality. Let your content be the type that will attract attention.
How Do I Proofread?
It is simple, before you publish your content, take your time and read it like three more times, that's too much, right? Maybe, yes, but it's worth it.
My coach was the one who gave me that idea of reading three times before hitting the publish button, although I didn't take it seriously until I joined the inkwell community, and I had the option to either adjust or leave. I owe the community a lot of appreciation for making me a better content creator.
Our problem most of the time is that we are always in a rush. You want to rush and post and leave, but why? You already took your time to write, why not do your best and make it perfect?
Some people say, “I don't enjoy reading my content.” Well, if you don't enjoy reading your work, what makes you think that others will enjoy it? Enough of the laziness.
You are not a machine, you are bound to make mistakes while writing. Read again, that word you are not sure of the spelling, go and google it. Don't be the type that is more interested in earning more than they are interested in giving quality.
I will tell you the truth, too many errors in a post spoil one's reputation, people will avoid your content. We are more interested in quality than quantity, but it will be excellent if you have both quantity and quality.
Paraphrasing is not accepted on Hive Blockchain, but there are tools that can help you correct your errors and not alter the originality of your work. I use Google docs and grammaly.com
These tools will underline spelling and grammatical errors for you; all you need to do is correct them using the necessary suggestions they will provide for you.
But even after using the tools, you still need to proofread because sometimes the suggestions will not go in line with what you want to communicate.
Let your work show beauty and perfection, we are not just here to earn but to learn as well. Take your time to edit your content before you publish them, remember that the way you write your content says a lot about who you are.
N.B: All Images Are Mine
Thanks For Reading
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This statement is inspiring.
You've said a lot, and honestly it's one thing we writers need to learn. I get those issues too; when I'm reading a content and I find such errors, and trying to guess what the writer actually meant, I tend to lose focus of the idea. I've had my share of errors too, I would wonder how that skipped me. Sometimes it's when I read again after posting it for some days I discover some errors, and truly I feel bad.
We're not perfect, we're not machines but we can always do our best to bring out the best possible. Those tools you cited are very important; especially grammarly for me.
This is a needful and necessary post, and you did justice to it.
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Thank you @topcomment.
There is always that temptation to just want to post and leave, I am a victim too but it ought not to be so.
It is very embarrassing to see those errors after you've gotten a few comments under the post, the pain hits differently.
It's best we save ourselves the embarrassment by doing the needful once and for all.
Thanks for this beautiful comment sir
Fact
I presume many of us have encountered this same errors. Safe to say, I love reading my writings.. I could do it over and over and over again and wouldn't still get tired.
And might not even realize a typo I made and only to have it pointed out by someone.
Really could be embarrassing.. I guess Grammarly had helped a lot in this aspect.
If you are a writer, encountering those things is ineluctable, sometimes it's difficult for one person to spot out all the errors in the posts, but we can do our part 😂
Thanks for reading
Thank you for sharing, one person has challenge me too on this platform , since then I have been more careful and read my content very well
We need more of those persons.. I have encountered many of them before..
This is very true sir I've been there and will always try to check my work again before posting.
Thanks for sharing
It happens to everyone, that's why it is crucial to always take our time to edit our contents properly before publishing
Interesting topic my brother,I do experience it a lot sometimes
Hehehe, then try and take correction boss
Hahaha 😂. I am a big victim here. Most times when I post and get back to read later I will discover errors that will make me want to hide my face.
Thanks for sharing
Lol, that thing is very annoying. It's better we save ourselves that shame by ensuring everything is okay before publishing.
Thanks for reading ma
Nice presentation
Thanks mate❣️
I will take this as one of the best post I've seen today, cause I can really relate,
I think with this, we can make corrections and make our post a better one
Thanks for sharing this with us 😊
Awnn, I am glad you enjoyed it dear.. I hope you enjoy using the tools. Thanks for stopping by❤️
I love your last sentence. Let your work show beauty and perfection.
I know no one is an island and everyone isn't perfect, we only strive to be the best and one of the ways is to be intentional and not be in a rush. I have learnt to read my draft more than 5 times to spot any errors and once I see it's all fine, I go ahead to publish.
Writing takes time especially the proofreading part but not everyone wants to do this. They are in a haste and therefore, make their work less unique.
There are lots of them here on Hive and most times, I feel tempted to point their mistakes, though I tend to do it to the ones I'm close to and who'd accept such criticism. I hope those concerned would learn to not rush to post but be patient to spot out any errors.
Five times? Hehehe, I just learned something again. The temptation to rush and post is very great, sometimes I fall a victim too. But what good is it to spend hours to write something beautiful then allow some errors that can be eradicated within minutes ruin the whole work?
I have always been scared of pointing things like that out to people, some of them will feel embarrassed, and probably take it personal, but for those I am cool with, I sometimes private chat them.
Thanks a lot for reading ma
Yea, we also have to be kind when pointing out those errors even with those we are close with. Some take things personal. Writing isn't a rush thing;one has to take their time to give the best.
I need this so much. I hope I'd be able to proof read my posts before publishing next time
Please do, I am glad you found this helpful, you can reach out to me if you need a guide on how to use the grammarly