Proofreading tips
It can be difficult to spot the mistakes in our own work – we are familiar with it and know what’s coming next.   Try to disrupt that familiarity.
1.	Print it out
Printing text out, perhaps in a different typeface or format, can make it easier to see errors.
2.	Recognise your faults
Get to know the errors you tend to make. Look over your feedback on previous work and make a personal checklist to use.
3.	Back to front
Read, or listen, to your writing backwards from the last sentence to the first - a sentence at a time.  This makes you look at each sentence more closely.
4.	Leave a gap
A gap of a few days, or even a few hours, after you last read a portion of your text will make it less familiar.
5.	Listen to your writing
Sometimes we hear mistakes we miss when we read the text.  Listening is good for checking flow and punctuation.  You can read portions out to yourself or ask a friend to read parts of the text to you.  You can also use the speech-to-text built-in to your word processing software.  Assistive software, such as Texthelp, is more sophisticated and can read selected passages in a text document.
6.	Change location
Proofreading in a different and less familiar space or context can make you see the text anew.
7.	Use a ruler
Forcing yourself to read line by line guides your proofreading and stops you skimming ahead.
8.	Use all of the tools
Switch on your software’s built-in spelling & grammar settings – you might not agree, but it will make you look again at what you have written.  
Look for ‘Editor’ settings and set the ‘Proofing language’ setting to English (U.K.).  Add specialist words from your field of study to the built-in dictionary.
You can’t rely on a spell checker to pick up everything; e.g. it won’t identify an incorrect choice of words that sound alike (bare and bear).  You may be able to use specialist assistive software, such as Texthelp, to help you identify further errors.
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