1. If you do nothing else, copy and paste your website content onto a Word doc. The spelling and grammatical mistakes will be automatically highlighted.
   
   
2. Read the piece out loud. This helps you to spot faulty sentence construction and bad grammar.
   
   
3. When proofreading, give yourself frequent breaks, otherwise you’ll quickly lose concentration.
   
   
4. Remember that you are not just proofing the words and punctuation. You also need to spot inconsistencies in style and formatting, such as headings that suddenly switch font size, or a change in the size or style of bullet points.
   
   
5. Avoid using the same word repeatedly. A thesaurus will help here.
   
   
6. Concentrate on reading one word at a time. This needs practice. When we read normally, we only skim over the words, fixing our eyes on maybe four words in one line. Most people can only accurately take in about six letters in one stare, so we are relying on our (not very accurate) peripheral vision to read the letters on either side of our stare. Make a conscious effort to stare at each word in turn. This isn’t as slow as it sounds; it’s just a different reading technique.
   
   
7. If you are proofing your own work, leave a decent period of time between finishing the writing and proofing it. You’ll spot more mistakes if you read it with a fresh approach, as if it were a document you had never seen before.
   
   
8. Don’t rely on proofreading on screen. You will pick up most mistakes this way, and it’s easier to correct them, but there will be some you’ll miss. Always do a final proofread of the hard copy.
   
   
9. Ask someone else to do a final proofread of your own work - we tend to be blind to our own mistakes.
   
   
10. Avoid lengthy sentences. Shorter sentences are easier to read, so consider if some of your commas should be full stops.
    
    
11. Consistency
    
    • Check any terminology is correctly used - and ideally explained.
    • If the copy says, 'see below', check it is below. Same goes for 'overleaf'.
    • Check for consistency of terms e.g. email or e-mail (either could be correct, but it has to be consistent).
    • Check for consistency of numbering in lists, bullets etc.
    • Check use of upper/lower case in headings, sub-heads etc.
      
      
12. Sense-check
    
    • If a lot of changes have been made, the sense of the piece may have been lost.

      Often it takes a fresh pair of eyes to see this.

    • Check the use of terminology – it may be a phrase or abbreviation that the Brand team always uses, but will it make sense to your audience?
      
      

A final tip: when you read, your eye only looks at the key words in a sentence, so as a final check, read the copy backwards. This will force you to examine each word. You’ll be surprised what new errors and mistakes you’ll spot which you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.