4 Quick Proofreading Tips

When creating content for your nonprofit, proofreading is as important as the writing. The good news is, you don’t have to be trained as a professional writer to develop quality content for your organization.

Here are a few suggestions to make your copy shine:

Review the source material that is supplied to you. In many cases, other people contribute to the content you are asked to write. Run a quick spellcheck and verify that all names are spelled correctly with a quick Google search.

Come back later. After you have written your content, put it aside for an hour, or a day if possible. Then, begin your proofreading. Errors are more noticeable when we put a little distance between the typing and the reading.

Read your work out loud. We speak more slowly than we read. When we read out loud, hearing our words makes it easier to identify missing content and leaps of logic. Sometimes things just don’t “sound right” and we have a chance to rewrite.

Ask someone else to read what you have written. This is the most important tip for proofreading. No one is a perfect writer. A second set of eyes is invaluable. Asking someone else in your organization to read a document helps identify any spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and more importantly, another person might have updated information that needs to be added. Event dates change, fund-raising goals are raised, new people are hired. A lot can happen between the time you begin to write and the time your content is published.

Here are some additional tips on proofreading from Copyblogger

At Redstart Creative, we love making nonprofits shine. If you need guidance on developing content, we are here to help