How to Produce Mistake Free Documents

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By Cinda Roth
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Produce Mistake Free Documents

Errors are part of writing; however, through careful proofreading you can produce mistake free documents. This article will help you proofread for grammar, punctuation, spelling, usage, capitalization, and numerical errors in your documents. The benefits you may obtain from avoiding mistakes in your writing are increased creditability, professionalism, and confidence.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 1

First, set aside time to proofread important technical documents at least twice.
Step 2

Enlist assistance from a colleague to proofread numbers. Have one person read the number that should be in the document and another person check the number that is in the document.
Step 3

Get a calculator and recalculate all numbers and totals to ensure accuracy.
Step 4

Now double check that you use all your terms correctly. Specifically check use of commonly confused words such as "affect", "effect", "among", "between", "continual", "continuous", "disinterested", "uninterested", "eager", "anxious", "farther", "further", "imply", "infer", "lay", "lie", "less", "fewer", "stationary", and "stationery. If you are unsure regarding the use of any of these please check a dictionary.
Step 5

Check that the subject and verbs in the document agree in number. A single subject requires a single verb. Remember that when two or more subjects are connected by the word "and" then you use a plural verb. If they are connected by the word "or" then you use a single verb. Similarly use a single verb with singular group words such as "each", "everyone", "everybody", "nobody", "someone", and "every", "firm", committee", etc.
Step 6

Check to see that you use commas in every sentence where two complete thoughts are separated by the word "but", "or", "yet", "so", "for", "and", and "nor".
Step 7

Look to see if you have a comma to set off the name of anyone who you are addressing specifically.
Step 8

Now let's go through and check our capitalization. Make sure that you capitalize any titles when they come before a person's name. Similarly if you are writing about a book, play, or television program please ensure that you capitalize the first, last, and all principal words of it, e.g. The Bourne Identity. Furthermore, check to ensure that you capitalize the name of governmental agencies, academic degrees, abbreviations if the words they stand for are capitalized, trade names, and geographic locations.
Step 9

Make sure that you use commas when there are three or more items in a list. Please make sure that you place a comma before the "and" that is right before the last item in the list.
Step 10

Now go through the numbers in your articles. Make sure that numbers from one to ten are expressed as words (one, two...) and those from 11 and above are expressed as figures (11, 12 ...). There are some special exceptions such as when they begin a sentence or when you have two numbers that are used together (e.g. two 8 file cabinets) or when you are expressing time.
Step 11

Check to see that you use commas to set off any introductory dependent clause.
Step 12

Be extra careful with sequences and double check that they are in order.
Step 13

Read documents line by line one last time backwards.