The use of a proofreader is highly recommended, but even that doesn't guarantee a good result. I've had some texts proofread and still had grammar/spelling criticized. Of course you could always get an incompetent proofreader (like me), one of the KAW entries suffered from that.

These are my suggestions for what you can do without a proofreader. Other suggestions welcome. Also suggestions for doing this on other platforms. I use a Mac exclusively, so I couldn't say how this applies to, say, Windows.

I've used these techniques recently and managed to produce texts which did not get critisised for spelling and grammar, which is novel for me.

1. Turn off Autocorrect.
2. Use a spell checker.
3. Use a grammar checker.
4. Read it/have it read aloud.
5. Read it backwards
6. Let it mature for a while


1. Turn off autocorrect.

This one may not be obvious. But autocorrect will change your error into another word. It may not be the word you are thinking of. What's worse is it's a word that will not be caught by a spellchecker. These sort of errors are very difficult to spot, at least for me they are. So its best to have a broken word in your text which will be caught by the next phase. You can then decide what word you actually meant to type.

On a Mac you can turn off autocorrect on the edit menu, under "Spelling and Grammar", make sure "Correct Spelling Automatically" is not checked.

Autocorrect is something which is most prevalent on phones, but is also now built into the Mac system. So if you use a Mac, you might find your texts being autocorrected. Not sure how this applies to other systems. Using a phone can be a handy way of entering text when you're away, but I'd highly recommend running through a desktop before submitting it.

Thanks to @tonybs for this idea.


2. Use a spell checker.

The spell checker is a marvelous invention, for someone like me. It's not a perfect solution, but it does catch a lot of very obvious mistakes. Its also very obvious when someone doesn't use one, and the first comment is "why didn't you use a spell checker".

One limitation of a spell checker is that it can't catch homophones and malapropisms. Homophones being words which are pronounced the same, but spelt different. Some of the most common are there/their/they're and your/you're. Using the wrong word can grate, it behooves you learn the difference between these and be on the lookout for using the wrong one.

Malapropisms are using the wrong, similar sounding word. My dictionary suggests that "Dancing a flamingo" would be a malapropism. The word that would fit better there would be "Flamenco". A spell checker cannot catch these errors. If you've made them you might be hard pressed to find them yourself.


3. Use a grammar checker.

Grammar checkers are even more unreliable than spelling checkers. They attempt to parse your writing and quite often fail to understand what you've written, so make absurd suggestions. For instance, while a grammar checker did find a couple of instances of using "its" instead of "It's" in this post, it suggested I use "you're" instead of "your" in this paragraph.

I use grammar checkers as suggestions. When the checker flags something I then go and examine it in more detail. I may well decide that its full of it and ignore its suggestion, but in some cases I might use its suggestion if I think its actually making a reasonable one.

The Mac comes with a built in grammar checker. You'll find it on the edit menu under "Spelling and Grammar." Either enable "Check Grammar While Typing", or choose "Show Spelling and Grammar" and check the "Check Grammar" checkbox. The grammar checker is quite primitive, but better than nothing. Word has also had a built in grammar checker for decades. I turned it off decades ago as I found it more annoying than anything.

One product I have found to be quite useful is "Grammarian" from Linguisoft: http://linguisoft.com This will flag an extensive array of questionable grammar, worse than the grammar nazis you find commenting on stories. It's been quite useful. It still needs to be used with careful consideration.

If anyone knows of something similar for other systems it'd be useful to know.


4. Read it/have it read aloud.

One of the problems with trying to correct errors is that you don't see them. You wrote something, you know what you wrote, so when you read it again, you read what you think you wrote, not what you actually wrote.

One way around this is to read your story aloud, or have it read aloud. Both of these cause the information to go through a different part of your brain, so you may actually spot an error. This is a very handy technique for spotting malapropisms (but not homophones). Its amazing what errors you can spot in your text by having it read.

I feel too silly reading my story aloud, so I've had some success with having the computer read it for me.
@BiStander suggested using "Dragon", for Windows I assume. On a Mac there is a built in text to speech utility, the Mac will read aloud highlighted text. This can be enabled in the System Preferences, under "Dictation & Speech", the "Text to Speech" tab. There is a checkbox for "Speak selected text when the key is pressed". You can select which key combination you want to enable for this.

The Mac also has the ability to create an audiofile from text. This can be enabled in the System Preferences, in the Keyboard preferences, under the "Shortcuts" tab. Under "Services", there's "Add to itunes as spoken track". If that's enabled, then a menu item appears on the Services sub-menu of the Application menu (the one with the application name, just next to the Apple menu). If you highlight some text and choose that, then an audio file is created and added to iTunes. I'll then load that on my phone and stream it to my car to listen to the story on my commute.


5. Read it backwards.

Another way of forcing your brain to re-read something, not read what it thinks you wrote, is to read the text backwards. You can read it word by word backwards, I've never had the patience to manage this. Its supposed to be an effective technique.

I have managed to spot errors by reading a text backwards by paragraph. This is certainly worth a try.


6. Let it mature for a while

One very handy technique is to put your story away for a while and not look at it. When you come back to it sometime later, you look at it with fresh eyes and some errors may jump out at you. At the very least, leave it a day. A week works well in a lot of case. Longer than that can be helpful if you have the time to spare.

 

Great post!