Our proofreading course will equip you with the editorial skills you need to become a qualified proofreader and copy editor. This online course will show you how to correct printed documents and webpages, and make them readable and legally compliant.

Proofreaders and editors edit either hard copies or on-screen documents.

Proofreading on-screen appears to be simpler than proofreading on paper because you don’t have to print the document out. And most people work on-screen anyway.

However, it is much harder to achieve a high-level accuracy rate.

We have all done it. We check a document on-screen and think it’s perfect, but then we spot several errors as soon as it comes out of the printer.

Why does this happen?

  • Document resolution is lower on-screen than on paper, which makes it harder to see things in detail. Most people read around 25 to 30% less effectively on-screen.
  • Your brain works in a different way when you are looking at a screen. You don’t concentrate as well as when reading paper documents. Have you ever “read” an article on-screen through from start to finish, and then realised you did not actually digest any of it?
  • Screens are sometimes affected by light, causing reflections and shadows.
  • It’s sometimes hard to remember where you got up to if you are interrupted.

So, it’s important that you become really accurate at proofreading and editing on-screen.

Tips for effective proofreading and editing on-screen

Whichever method you use, these tips will help. Aim to:

  • Avoid reading pages that you created yourself.
  • Save a copy of the page before proofreading it, in case you make changes that may have to be undone.
  • Use spell-check and grammar checking tools such as those found in MS Word. Subscription tools such as PerfectIt  and Grammarly also help with proofreading, and can be used in the beginning and/or once you’ve finished, to make sure you haven’t missed anything. This will give you a head start, but don’t trust these tools to find everything. Double-check manually as you have been taught in your proofreading on paper lessons.
  • If you are reading a document with several components, such as text, photos and graphs, train yourself to read things in a set order, for example, edit the text first and then the photos and captions. This ensures that you don’t miss anything.
  • Read one line at a time. A good way to do this is to highlight the line you are reading, like the one above. That way, you can concentrate on that line until you are finished with it.

See our proofreading course