Proofreading

(1) Never be the only one to proofread. The person preparing a document should never be the primary proofreader. Have someone else check your document for errors and type-os. For documents that will be seen by a large number of people (newsletter, Sunday bulletin, PowerPoint song lyrics for worship), have two or three other people proofread.

(2) Read it backwards. One of the best ways to catch spelling mistakes is to look at the document from end to beginning. When reading normally, your eye/mind will sometimes make the logical connection between words even though they are misspelled. You can read over a mistake and not even realize it. Reading from back to front forces the mind to deal with each word individually.

(3) Look up names. When in doubt, always look up names of individuals to make sure the spelling is correct. There's nothing more impersonal than misspelling someone's name.

(4) Verify information. Don't trust your memory--verify all information, including dates, times, locations, events, titles, contact info--whatever. Have a printed original, email or other paper trail you can refer to for every item in your document. The best laid plans can be undone if you have to produce another document to correct mistakes you made in the first one.

(5) Don't schedule through proofreading. Proofreading is simply finding and correcting mistakes and type-os. Have a separate process for canceling events, changing event info or making major adjustments to content. Marking "this has been cancelled" on an event article during the proofreading process needs follow-up--do those who are involved know the event is cancelled? Why was notification not given to this point? Who needs to know about the cancellation and who is responsible to make the notification?

(6) Fix the problem. Mistakes are going to occur no matter how careful you are. Forget about trying to fix the blame--we're human, it happens. Instead, concentrate on fixing the problem. Never turn down an opportunity to have your document proofread by an additional person or two--the more eyes, the fewer mistakes.