rewriting and

proofreading
Mr Ramokgopa MD
2024
Introduction
• Any piece of writing should be planned, researched,
structured, written then edited.
• Structure for relevance
• Flow =logical progression+ balance
• Evidence=quality of arguments depends on quality of
evidence
Different ways of looking at it
• Preconception
• Proofreading
• Copy editing (sub editing or subbing)
• Rewriting
Differences
• Proofreading=surface errors such typos, spelling mistakes;
• blatant grammar errors and
• mark them on the text (or on screen)
• for the writer’s attention, without necessarily changing anything
• This enables the writer to decide which of the changes s/he wants to
apply- without having to thumb-suck what the editor have done to
the original document.
• This is the cheapest of the three (editing and rewriting)
Differences
• Copy editing-the running of the red pen-basic proofreading then go on to look for
poor syntax, poor general structure, repletion, redundancy, contradiction or
inconsistency on the text.
• This is done on screen so that the editor can use Microsoft’s Track Changes’ function
or a similar device, like highlighting in colour, to make the changes for the writer;
• And to clearly illustrate what has been changed for the writer’s reference.
• This takes about three times as long as it also includes a basic proofreading
• More expensive the proofreading=Charged per-page or per hour
• Proofreading is the final stage of the writing process when the paper
is evaluated for mechanical correctness, such as grammar,
punctuation, spelling, omitted words, repeated words, spacing and
format, and typographical errors
Definition of proofreading
• According to Google, proofreading is the act of
reviewing and fixing errors within the final draft of your
writing to make sure the grammar, spelling,
punctuation, and format are consistent and
accurate. You can either decide to proofread the copy
yourself or to hire a professional proofreader.
Reason for proofreading
• Having a proofreader means catching mistakes, and ensuring that all of your written copy is
pristine and clear before you submit it.
• It cleans up punctuation mistakes
• It fixes formatting inconsistencies
• it improves word choices and sentence structure

• It ensures clarity of brand message. You already know the message you want to convey

to your audience, but that doesn't mean it will automatically translate to your readers.

Confusing wording or grammar errors can lead to a misunderstanding or a lack of interest.

Proofreaders clear up misunderstandings, ensuring that your message is clear and

consistent. They eliminate confusion and bring your brand message front and center.
Cont………

• It gives a positive image of your written document. As mentioned

earlier, there are some mistakes that just make your writing feel
unprofessional and almost rude. Having a proofreader review every piece
of work published under your business name eliminates every
unprofessional mistake. Having a polished piece of writing reassures your
audience that you are, in fact, the expert in your business. After all, if your
writing is professionally on point, you must be professionally on point as
well.
What does a proofreader do?

• Fixing errors is the main action a professional proofreader takes when proofreading, but there is much more

behind a proofreader's job. Going into more details a professional proofreader checks your copy for:

Spelling Typos.

Even the best writers make the occasional spelling mistake. When writing business copy, the focus is

predominantly on the brand message and voice, leaving plenty of room for a misspelled word to slip in.

Alternatively, a writer might spell a word correctly, but it's the wrong form for the context (such as your, you're,

and yore). This can cause an unprofessional appearance or even a poor interpretation of your meaning,

depending on how egregious the mistake is.

Cont….

• Grammar Errors.

Grammar errors are the fastest way to discredit yourself to your reader, which can hurt your

chance of being viewed as an authority in your industry. Like spelling errors, these are difficult

to catch when you’re so focused on conveying your broader meaning. A good proofreader will

find your sentence fragments, dangling modifiers, and vague references. They’ll take those

issues and turn them around to make shiny new sentences that have a clear meaning,

eliminating confusion for your readers and prospective customers.

Cont…
• Punctuation Mistakes.

Want to know the number one enemy in punctuation? It’s the comma. There seem
to be a thousand rules when it comes to comma placement. The truth is, comma
rules change drastically depending on the style guide you’re using. Comma
splices aren’t the only punctuation mistakes you might overlook. It’s pretty easy to
second guess a colon (:) or semicolon (;) especially if you do not use them in your
everyday writing. A proofreader will make sure that your punctuation is in the right
spot, conveys the right tone, and plays by all the guideline rules it needs to.
Cont…
• Incorrect Word Usage.

There are many commonly misused words and phrases. Sometimes, it’s a
matter of focusing on the big picture instead of the individual word. Other
times, it’s a matter of simply not knowing the difference. Having the
wrong word can change the meaning drastically and can make it unclear
to your audience exactly what product or service you're trying to sell. Let
your proofreader make sure your work has the right word every time.
CONT…
• Inconsistent brand style and voice.

Imagine reading a children's book about sorcerers and wizards. All of a sudden, in the middle
of chapter five, there’s a paragraph about doing your taxes. Feels out of place, right? That’s
how it feels for your reader when your writing switches style mid-project. Your brand has a
style and a voice. It can be conversational, formal, or many things in-between. Regardless of
your brand’s voice, it’s important to be consistent. With time your audience will grow to know
your voice as an authority in the industry that they can trust and turn to. Proofreaders look
for places this voice changes and help create a more cohesive experience for your readers.
Cont….
• Hyphenation and capitalization errors.

We all know you should capitalize the first word of every sentence, but capitalization
is not always straightforward. Do you know when you should capitalize Lieutenant?
Do you know if you are supposed to capitalize dog breeds? What about monument
names? Do you know when to use hyphens? Should someone go to the sign-in
page? Or, should they go to the sign-in page? Both capital letters and hyphens can
get confusing at times, and they'll confuse your readers too. Make it easy on
yourself and your readers and hire a professional proofreader.
CONT…
• Verb tenses.

Do you ever saw a sentence where the verb did not make sense, now? Was that
sentence confusing? It should have been. The verb tenses were all over the place,
making the sentence feel awkward and wrong. Verb tense issues are very common, so
it’s important to check for their consistency in a final draft. A proofreader is a lot like Las
Vegas: they help the past stay in the past. They make sure your verbs don’t contradict
each other, making your writing awkward and clunky. Business writing should be
smooth and easy to read, and proofreaders help make it so.
CONT…
• Formatting.

Formatting your writing is just as important as the words themselves. Don’t believe it? Take a look at
this article. Sections are separated by headers so your eyes can easily scan and understand the
content. This is even more important when you have a style guide to follow. You want your work to be
easy on the eyes of readers by including the right headers and bullet points while avoiding bulky
paragraphs. Proofreaders can ensure that each subheading is the right size, the bullet point style is
consistent throughout, and the correct font is used before publishing. Poor formatting can lose a
reader's interest before they make it past the introduction, so be sure someone is looking to make
your writing as visually polished as possible.
CONT…
• Idioms.
After the day he had, he was ready to hit the hay. Tomorrow’s plans
would be up in the air anyway. Figuring it out in the morning would be
a piece of cake. Idioms might be fun in your daily conversation, but
there’s no need for them in your writing. In fact, idioms might belittle
your meaning or make it more confusing, particularly if they're used
incorrectly. Some readers may also find idioms cliche and overused,
causing them to lose interest in your business. Proofreaders can help
find more original ways to convey your meaning.
CONT..
• Overall flow.

Imagine if Little Red Riding Hood started in the woods, but then she remembered her mom’s
warning. Imagine then, that she got to her grandmother’s house and saw the wolf. Then, there
was a flashback to a wolf in the forest. That version of the story would be all over the place
without a natural flow. You’d get to the end of the story and wonder, “What the heck did I just
read?” All writing should have some kind of beginning, middle, and end...and flowing
transitions to get you from one place to the next. That overall flow makes your writing easy to
read and your meaning easy to follow.
CONT..
• Sentence structure. There are three main types of mistakes in sentence structure:

• Sentence fragments: These are sentences that are incomplete.

• Run-on sentences: These are two independent clauses that are joined incorrectly. (i.e The dog barked the man called
the police)

• Comma splices: These are two independent clauses joined by a comma that shouldn’t be (i.e The dog barked, the man
called the police).

• Like grammar issues and verb tenses, these leave the reader focusing on making sense of your sentences rather than
understanding the point of your content. If they have to work too hard to understand your meaning, they're likely to
give up altogether.

• As a fresh set of eyes on a piece of content, proofreaders make sure that whatever writing you're publishing makes
sense to a brand new reader. They'll tell you if you need more context or explanation to best convey your meaning.
Skills and qualities any proofreader
must have
• If you're looking to hire a professional proofreader to bring consistency
and accuracy to your writing, make sure they:

Pay extreme attention to detail. A proofreader needs to be in tune with

every detail on the page. They need to comb over your writing page by
page, paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, word by word, and
comma by comma. A good proofreader must be a perfectionist so they
can catch any mistakes and any misunderstandings.
CONT..
• Have a strong command of the language.
A good proofreader also needs to have a perfect understanding of the
language that you want to proofread. Being a native or near-native
speaker gives a clear understanding of not only the rules but the flow of
writing. Their language knowledge needs to go above and beyond
grammar, though. They need to have a solid grasp of voice and style.
You will want your writing to be as cohesive as possible and only
someone with a command will be able to guide it there. If you're
specifically writing in AP or Chicago style you'll want to ensure that your
proofreader has expertise in that format.
CONT..
• Must be able to communicate well. To make sure a piece of writing
communicates a message well, a proofreader needs to be able to
communicate well. They should make it crystal clear how and why
something is not working, and be able to convey it to your writing
team so they can rectify it before publishing.
Definition of rewriting
• write (something) again so as to alter or improve it.
• If someone rewrites a piece of writing such as a book, an article, or a law, they write it in a
different way in order to improve it.

• A written product can be magical, but only with the help of rewrite (or re-write). Actually, the

essence of high-quality content is in understanding that writing is rewriting. It’s that rewriting

which targets the perspective of the specific reader. If I were looking for someone to rewrite

my article, I would definitely find someone, first of all, passionate about the topic at hand.

With the help of the best rewriting services like Writology, a rough draft with uninteresting lists

and scientific facts can turn into a blossomed article ready to harvest the readers’ attention.
writing and rewriting are not different at all! And, in fact, there are 3 main
ingredients that create a successful cocktail of rewrite content

• Revise once, revise twice, and revise one more time. We will talk
about it more, but revising a paragraph (each paragraph that you
write, one by one) is key. Writology specialists know that talent is not
in writing itself but in the discipline of rewriting exercises and
constant revision.
• Catch the eye of objectivity. You can not learn how to write like
Hemingway without being objective and self-critical. This is true. The
real secret to juicy masterpieces is writing revision and constant self-
criticism. Never stop questioning yourself. What may seem an axiom
to you may well be a shaky theorem to your readers — do not forget
that!
CONT…
• Rewriting is not easier (or, for that matter, faster!) than writing. In
essence, we can define rewrite in the same way as writing. It’s the
same, except for rewriting has some factual basis, which must be
checked before being put on paper. In such a way, one may even
question what’s actually easier: operating facts and checking them to
produce a decent rewrite, or simply choosing what to write about
from the start?
What is rewriting and how to rewrite
effectively?
• The key to a high-quality product is rewriting notes. First comes free
writing, and then multiple rewriting. Article rewriting gurus can literally
show you the ‘bloodstains’ on the walls in their offices from pounding their
heads when rewriting. You cannot have a well-written piece from the first
try. After compiling notes, you have to work hard and rewrite or revise it
multiple times. Rewriting services online — like Writology — have
specialists who do this on a daily basis. Their experience is only
measured by the number of texts they have rewritten until satisfactory.
rewriting
• Rewriting-biggest and most time-consuming of an editor/writer’s job.
• It involves rewriting phrases, sentences, paragraphs or sections to
achieve better flow, more coherence, clearer logic, more appropriate
vocabulary or, if necessary, to add more information.
• This is a final stage, it encompasses both proofreading and copy
editing.
• It can take six to 10 times as long as a basic proof (based on the
editor’s technique and experience)
• Most expensive than the two…it is usually quoted for on a per hour
per-job basis.
continue
• Rewriting is the process of writing a something again in order to
improve it.
• You rewrite to produce the document that is free from errors and
mistakes. Rewriting entails editing of the document.
Knowing how to rewrite a story and
make it unique takes 3 steps.
• Actually, Writology rather views these steps as a circle of life and makes sure it’s repeated several times for every re-
written piece:

• Free writing - this is a fast and boundary-free type of writing that can be compared to filling the pages in your
personal diary every day;

• Rewriting the most interesting part - after an objective analysis, you may wish to rewrite certain parts to seem more
intriguing and awe-inspiring. You may wish to add more detail, description, paradox, oxymoron, comparison,
parallelism, and other literary devices;

• Revising- after a few steps of rewriting, a piece must be revised. Modern online tools may make this process faster.
This includes grammar and punctuation revision and does not exclude objective cutting out of the unnecessary or
redundant facts.
What is Rewriting: The Writology
Style?
• For Writology, to re write (or rewrite) a written piece means to not just
put synonyms in different places. It’s a creative process which requires
improving the text and making it more relevant. To put revise in a
sentence for Writology means to produce a fresh and fascinating product.
Contrary to the stereotypical approach (unfortunately) adopted by much
modern content creating and editing agencies, article rewrite at Writology
is a perpetual mechanism, which includes but is not limited to:
CONT…
• Rephrasing — rephrasing is critical as the text must be re-written in order to meet the goal of 0% plagiarism,
and, with so much content out there, this task is challenging enough;
• Changing/editing headers — it may seem easy to rewrite characters and words but it’s also important to
revise each header to make sure it’s both eye-catchy and bot-friendly (otherwise, Google and other search
engines won’t understand what the text is about);
• Restructuring paragraphs — it’s important to refresh the text by changing the order of things (unless it’s a set
process being described) in order to make the reader awed and interested;
• Updating statistics — nowadays statistical reports are released daily so it may be challenging to remain
relevant in 100% of the cases, but your readers will definitely appreciate the effort;
• Optimizing the SEO aspect — SEO mainly determines how fast the reader will see your source when
searching by keywords, so neglecting this aspect would be the opposite of smart;
• Improving readability with lists and images — you may be advised to rewrite synopsis and make it more
visual with the help of images, infographics, lists, and bullets, as they’re more attractive for the eye than the
never-ending text on the screen;
• Including hooks into introduction and conclusion — what is one way to revise a narrative and make it more
interesting? Of course, it’s hook phrases in the beginning and at the end;
• Questioning the value of every sentence — the last but not the least, becoming a skeptic and questioning
facts will make the writer sound more reliable.
Why are the three processes
necessary in our context?
• Recognising your own and others students’ mistakes.
• The sooner you learn to recognise mistakes the sooner you will be
able to avoid making them in your own writing.
• When you make an error in a piece of written work, whether it is a
test or assignment, it is useful to know what type of error you have
made.
• It is not enough simply to know that something is wrong. If you know
how you went wrong, it may help you to avoid such an error in the
future.
When you receive your assessments’ feedback
you may realise some abbreviations and symbols.
• Abbreviations and symbols written in the margin
written in the margin
Abbreviation/ explanatio comm
symbol n ent

S/P Singular/p You

lural have
Singular used
and plural singul
(verb ar
forms) instea
 Verb d of
categor the
ies plural
should or vice
be versa
known
to be
able to
decide
whether
a verb
CONCLUSION
• Proofreading makes a difference in how you present yourself and your
company to your audience. If you are ready to ensure you are seen as
an authority in your industry without being overlooked for simple
errors, then it's time to hire a proofreader. Rewriting is essential in
writing because it offers a chance to write again something but with
limited or no errors.