What Is Proofreading And How Can You Proofread Your Essay?

Once or more than a time, you must have come across an instruction where your professor informs you to carefully proofread your work before submitting it. However, it is natural to wonder: what exactly is proofreading and how can I proofread my work?

Proofreading is the process of examining your text and checking for any errors, typos, or questions. It is the only way to ensure that your essay is edited to meet academic standards. It is extremely essential to ensure that the essay or paper you write is correct and devoid of any errors or mistakes.

Proofreading Is also a process of evaluating the overall quality of a text, through which you can determine whether the overall message and delivery of the text are clear and convincing.

Furthermore, proofreading is the process of refining, reorganizing, and improving the main content of a piece of writing. 

The act of proofreading is done by a dedicated proofreader. It is a lot more intricate and extensive than just the mere copy-editing of work; therefore, it deserves much more attention. This is perhaps why most students find it hard to grasp the idea of proofreading and what proofreading entails. To simplify the concept, I have come up with three ways you can proofread your essay with a few important pointers. 

1. You can proofread yourself

It is believed that proofreading should not be done by the writer but by the reader. This is because the writer's brain is prone to think in a certain way and it may be difficult for him to free his mind from the idea he created. Also, a lot of writers do not spend much time proofreading their works. They are so particular about publishing it. 

As a student or writer, you can proofread your work yourself but that would be perfect if you are willing to spend more time proofreading your work. Proofreading is all about precision and clarity. So, you can be assured that you will find almost all the errors in the essay if you make a personal effort to check it out yourself. However, please note that you must check for all the relevant keywords in the entire text of the essay, including sentences. You must make sure that there is no hidden message that is not revealed in the phrase of the sentence. Here are some tips to proofread your work.


  • Take it slow: If you want to proofread your work, you need to take your time to scrutinize it properly. You have to be ready to read and scrutinize your work paragraph by paragraph. So, you do not have to rush but leave sufficient time for you to go through the work properly.
  • Read it aloud: You must listen to what you have written to know if it is written well and if there are spelling errors.
  • Check for spelling errors: Spelling mistakes are an issue for all of us, especially students. Thus, these mistakes should be thoroughly checked paragraph by paragraph to easily figure out spelling mistakes and sentence structure errors.
  • Review your vocabulary: Every essay has a different vocabulary; therefore, you must check the vocabulary and make sure it fits into the context.
  • Check your formatting: Ensure that your essay is well-formatted. Bad formatting gives the impression that your work has a huge list of errors. In fact, this is what most lecturers use to judge the competency of your essay. Therefore, make sure your formatting is correct. 
  • Check for typos: Especially in sentence structure. You should be alert to the fact that a lot of errors are committed due to a typographical errors. Most of the time, the reason for typos is a lack of attention. When you know you have to proofread your work, it is better to leave the work on autopilot until the proofreading process is complete. However, please note that most of the time the error could have been detected in the reading stage. So, you should be careful to notice these errors in the reading stage.
  • Check sentence structure: This includes identifying sentence structure problems. Check sentences that are ambiguous and that do not support the main idea of the paragraph. Check sentences that may not allow the reader to understand the context.
  • Check for supporting evidence, quotations, and facts: To the last point, make sure you check whether the essay has supporting evidence that supports the claim of your essay. Some students often end up choosing sentences that do not support their claims because they do not take into account the previous sentences, and this is a time-wasting process. Even if a sentence seems to be supporting the theory, you must check whether it supports your thesis and the position you have argued. 

2. You can hire a professional

Another ideal option for proofreading is a proofreader who is skilled in different fields and is well-versed in grammar. All college students can hire a qualified proofreader to help them proofread their essays and achieve a high grades.

These professional proofreaders are available online, and most of them specialize in academic writing. They have decades of experience in this field and are the best resources for students. With them, students can find out how many errors exist in their work and what is the reason for the errors. If you want to find the best proofreader for your essay writing help, please visit

After the writing process, you can easily check the essay and the number of errors that you have to correct to ensure a high-quality essay.

3. You can use an online editor

Online editing is a website where you can get a number of services at the same time. For instance, if you are a lazy student, you can rely on this site to proofread your work. These services include grammar checking, spell-checking, and a whole lot more. However, you should be careful to choose a grammar checker website that is best for you. 

Should I proofread myself, hire a professional or rely on a grammar checker?

Honestly, none of these options is bad but one is more useful and reliable than the other. 

Proofreading yourself. 

This option is good but it is not the best. In fact, it is the least among all and this is because no matter how attentive you are, skimming through your work, the fact that you are the writer will not let you see all your mistakes. So, it is best to go for another option. 

Proofreading by a professional. 

Although this option also has its lapses it is more reliable and helpful than the other two because a professional proofreader is skilled at spotting a mistake and you cannot compare what he knows to others. However, the only problem here is that there is a limited possibility of getting a high-quality proofreader for your essays. This is because a lot of people now claim the word "professional"  even though they are not. A reason why it is better to rely strictly on referrals. There are so many benefits when you give your work to somebody that was referred to you either by a friend or a trusted website. 

You should also note when giving your work to a professional that the person must be well versed in grammar and within your specialization. This would reassure you that your writing is in a safe place. 

Proofreading by grammar checker online. 

This online editor option is also good but it is not perfect, and that is why you should be careful. More so, I recommend this for students or writers who do not have enough funds to hire a professional proofreader. However, if you are going for this option, be aware that grammar checker websites are so many out there and the quality of your proofreading depends on the one you choose. 

According to the experience I have had as an online editor, I have noticed that each grammar checker has its special advantage that makes them unique. So, there is really no grammar checker to be written off. For instance, I make use of Grammarly and Quillbot and these two have their special advantage. There are some features added to the Quillbot grammar checker that is not available in Grammarly and vice-versa. Also, Quillbot checks grammar errors for you in a way that is faster than Grammarly. 

Another aspect of it is that there are some writing rules that Grammarly rules as incorrect for users and otherwise in Quillbot. A good example of this that I have noticed is the use of Comma with "and." When you do not add commas before and, Grammarly will correct that but Quillbot never mind. However, this does not mean Grammarly is better than Quillbot because Quillbot also has some special variety like revising a whole sentence for you. 

My advice is that you can use the two. Use Quillbot first and Grammarly afterward.  The most interesting thing about these grammar checkers is that they are free. If you will like to choose this option and want to start using the best grammar checker, sign up here for Grammarly and sign up here for Quillbot. Good luck with your proofreading! 

Final thoughts...

Proofreading is very important especially when you are writing an essay for university. It is very important that you edit your work before it is sent to your lecturers for checking. You can pay for an expert proofreader if you can afford it. But it is better to sign up for free for an online editor services if you cannot afford to pay a professional and then apply for the premium in the future. Yes! It is as simple as that. Good luck! 







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