When you’re in the writing flow, it’s tempting to bang out a page, post or article and hit ‘Publish‘ – but before you do that, do you check your writing for mistakes?
If not, you’re likely producing something littered with the following:
- Grammatical errors
- Spelling mistakes
- Nonsensical sentences
- Paragraphs you never finished
I’ve found all of the above errors in my written content in the past – all because I was too trigger-happy.
Nine easy ways to check your writing for mistakes.
There’s nothing wrong with a typo slipping through the net. It happens and shows you’re human. What you don’t want is content that takes a cypher to decode.
With that in mind, here are nine tips to help you check your writing for mistakes:
One. Give it a read-through.
Yep, start with the most obvious thing – reread what you’ve written.
If you’ve managed to create something with absolutely no errors, nothing that needs pruning and is 100% dramatically spot on – I take my hate off for you.
But for most, there will always be typos, errors and bits you can tighten to make your message clearer.
Just taking the time to reread what you’ve written will help you catch a load of mistakes.
Two. Run it through a spellchecker.
So simple, so often not done.
A spellchecker isn’t a magic wand, and it isn’t perfect.If you’ve spelt something correctly, it often won’t pick it up.
What spellcheckers will do is pick up the mistakes they do recognise, and that’s going to improve your writing no end.
Three. Run it through Grammarly.
Oh, I don’t use this, do I?
Course I do.
I don’t apply all of its recommendations because, frankly, some are bloody absurd. But, what it does do is pick up grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. The free version is fine, but a monthly subscription won’t burn a massive hole in your pocket.
Four. Run it through Scribens.
You’ll like this.
Another way to check your writing for mistakes is with Scribens.
Scribens is a free grammar checker I’ve used for years – but it’s something a lot of people don’t know about. It picks up errors, run-on sentences, comma overuse and will let you know if you’ve gone a bit over the top on vomit-inducing cliches.
Again, you don’t have to listen to all of its suggestions (and there are a few odd ones), but it’s a handy little free tool.
Five. Chuck it in Hemingway.
I don’t, but you should.
I only don’t use Hemingway because I find Grammarly and Scribens enough to check my content, but many writers (and non-writers) use it.
You might find it a better tool for checking your writing for mistakes.
Six. Change the font colour and read it.
Miss the days when it was normal to use a bright orange Comic Sans font?
Don’t we all?
Well, this is your opportunity to bring back those glory days.
Change the font size and colour of your written content. The change gives your eye a rest from the font you’ve written it in, making it easier to spot mistakes.
Seven. Print it out and read it aloud.
Our eyes skip lines when we read it on a screen, so keep it in orange Comic Sans, print it out, read it then read it out loud.
Your eye will read every line on paper like it would a book.
It sounds weird, but it’s true.
The upshot is that you’ll notice any mistakes that have illuded the previous six steps so far.
Eight. Download a Text-to-Speech App
Like ReadMe.
I use a Chrome Extension App called Readme – Text-to-Speech (other apps, like NaturalReader, are available).
The choice of voices on Readme is incredibly bland, with little to no personality on show across the range of options. This is great because its lack of vocal character makes it easier to hear errors.
Visit Readme – Text-to-Speech.
Nine. ChatGPT
Oh, Christ, really?
Actually, yes.
It’s a handy tool for checking grammar, spelling mistakes, word flow and repetition.
It’ll make you sound like a robot if it writes stuff for you, even if you ask it to be chatty (in which instance, it’ll make you sound like a bloody weirdo).
But for checking errors, it’s fine.
Ready to check your writing for mistakes?
Then implement some or all of my nine tips above, and pretty soon you’ll see the quality of your written content improve.
Writing not for you?
Then, why not work with a copywriter like me?
Go on, let’s chat about your next project.
Until next time,
Matt
