One of the most dreadful (and important) steps of creating eLearning content is the proofreading and editing. You are the teacher – that means your students expect quality content without spelling and grammatical errors.
Here are a few tips to help you proofread and edit your online course like a pro. Hopefully with these tips, proofreading will become a little easier the next time around.
- Read aloud. Reading aloud forces you to slow down while you proofread – so you don’t miss anything. Sometimes it may look good on paper (or on the screen) but then it doesn’t flow right or sounds confusing when read aloud. Remember, you want to read it the same way you want your students to interpret it. That means you may need to switch some wording around and add punctuation where necessary to get the flow right.
- Know your weaknesses. Everyone has a weakness when it comes to writing and editing. Whether it is spelling or grammar, it is important to know the mistakes you often make – that way you can pay extra attention to those possible mistakes while proofreading. This will ultimately make you more effective and efficient when proofreading and editing.
- Don’t rely on spell check. Unfortunately, spell check tools don’t catch all your spelling and grammar errors – although we wish they would! It’s simple – don’t fully rely on spell check and proofread it yourself just in case.
- Read and reread. Proofreading and editing just once is usually not enough – you’ll likely miss something. Take your time reading your content over and over again. You may also want to take some breaks in between and give your mind a fresh start. Going in with a new perspective might make it easier to change that confusing sentence that you’ve been having trouble with.
- Don’t procrastinate. If you wait until the day of the deadline, chances are that you’ll miss errors and cause yourself unnecessary stress. Instead, proofread and edit your content early, giving yourself extra time to make the corrections and relax a little before that final deadline.
- Follow a checklist. Sometimes proofreading and editing your (many) online courses can become tedious. However, with the help of an eLearning checklist your proofreading process can be easier and faster. Your checklist should contain a list of common mistakes you may make and different areas of the course to check. We’ll be sharing a proofreading checklist that does just this next week.
These are 6 simple tips to help you proofread and edit your course like a pro. Stay tuned for our part 2 next week, featuring an eLearning checklist to make your proofreading and editing even easier!