Six essential tips for avoiding writing mistakes.

Nothing looks worse than mistakes in your written material.  Mistakes and typos can make you look dumb and cost you money.

Here are my 6 tips to help you proofread to catch errors in your writing:

1. Print out your work – studies show time after time that the human eye catches more errors in text that is printed out, than on screen.

2. Increase the point size of your font – most of us write using a 10 pt. or 12 pt. font size…jump it up to 24 pt. to make it much easier to catch errors.

3. Be careful with the obvious stuff – most of us are good at proofreading text and yet lots of errors occur in the header, footer and logos…check them to be safe.

4. Read your work out loud – you’ll write better and catch more mistakes.

5. Read slowly – take your time and have a healthy sense of doubt about every word…this will give you the distance to catch common mistakes like now for know or would for wood.

6. Proofread more than once – work through it again line by line, word by word or ask a colleague to check it out as well.