Proofreading and editing: a checklist before you publish

Most errors that reach the public slip through because one tired person tried to do every kind of check in a single read. It helps to separate the jobs. Editing looks at the whole piece: is the main point clear, does it suit the reader and is the evidence strong enough? Copy editing works sentence by sentence on clarity, consistency and house style. Proofreading is the final pass for mistakes.

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab advises working on the main point, the readers and purpose, and the evidence first, and leaving grammar and usage for the polishing stage, when you pay attention to details.¹ It describes proofreading as primarily searching your writing for errors, both grammatical and typographical.² Doing these jobs in order saves time, because there is no point correcting commas in a paragraph you are about to delete.

Start by reading the whole draft as the intended reader would. Purdue's revising steps ask you to find your main point, identify your readers and purpose, evaluate your evidence and keep only the ideas that connect to your main point.¹ If you cannot say what a report chapter or press release is for in one sentence, no amount of proofreading will save it.

Remember that online readers rarely read every word. In Jakob Nielsen's classic 1997 study for Nielsen Norman Group, 79% of test users always scanned new pages and only 16% read word by word.³ The same article recommends meaningful rather than clever subheadings, bulleted lists, one idea per paragraph and starting with the conclusion.³ At this stage, check that your headings alone tell the story.

Copy editing is where long, tangled sentences become short, clear ones. The US government's plain language guidance on Digital.gov advises expressing only one idea in each sentence, and notes that long, complicated sentences often mean the writer is not sure what they want to say.⁴ It suggests paragraphs of no more than 150 words in three to eight sentences, limited to one topic.⁴

Abbreviations deserve special attention in development writing, where reports can drown in acronyms. Digital.gov advises defining an abbreviation the first time you use it and limiting a document to no more than three, preferably two.⁵ Copy editing is also where you apply your house style: spelling (organisation or organization), capital letters, dates, numbers and how you refer to partners and places. In our own practice, we keep a short list of the decisions that come up most often so every editor applies them the same way.

The errors that do the most damage are rarely spelling mistakes. They are a misspelt name of a minister or partner, a wrong job title, a figure that does not match the source report, or a date that has changed since the first draft. These need a separate check against the original documents, not just a careful read.

In our practice, we print or export a list of every name, title, figure, date and place name in a document and tick each one against its source. We check that percentages add up, that totals in tables match totals in the text, and that a figure quoted in the summary is the same as in the body. Place names and Kinyarwanda, French or Swahili terms are checked by someone who knows them well.

Proofreading works best with fresh eyes. Purdue OWL suggests leaving time after finishing to walk away, whether for a day or two, a week or even 20 minutes, then printing a hard copy and reading slowly, and finally asking someone else to review it.² It also warns that you should not rely solely on your computer's spell-check, because it will not catch everything, and to take special care with words such as your and you're or there, their and they're.⁶ Other techniques from the same guidance work well for busy teams:⁶

• Read slowly and aloud to catch missing or repeated words.
• Read one sentence at a time in reverse order to focus on each sentence's structure.
• Look for one type of error at a time rather than everything at once.
• Note the mistakes you make most often and search for them deliberately.

Many errors live outside the body text: in links, headings, file names and image descriptions. The UK Government's guidance on publishing accessible documents asks writers to make sure link text clearly describes where the link goes, to use real heading styles instead of bold text, and to give every document a meaningful title.⁷ It also recommends running your software's accessibility checker before uploading a document.⁷

The same guidance suggests aiming for around 25 words or less per sentence and explaining technical terms, abbreviations or acronyms the first time you use them.⁷ For a press release, add the obvious final checks: the embargo line, contact details and every link clicked once more on the live page.

A checklist only works if someone owns it. Agree in advance who edits the structure, who copy edits, who checks facts against sources and who gives final approval. Senior reviewers are most useful at the structure stage, not the comma stage, so share drafts with them early.

In our own practice, the person who wrote a text is never its only proofreader. Build the final read into the timeline rather than squeezing it in after design, because correcting a typeset report or a subtitled film is slower than correcting a draft.

• Main point clear in one sentence, with headings that tell the story
• One idea per sentence and short paragraphs
• Abbreviations defined on first use and kept to a minimum
• House style applied to spelling, dates and numbers
• Names, titles, figures and dates checked against sources
• Proofread on a printout or slowly aloud, after a break
• Links, headings and file titles checked and accessibility checker run
• A second person has read the final version