a better way to proofread

Don't you just hate it when you have e-mailed, filed, or otherwise dispatched some piece of writing, only to spot a glaring error that you overlooked? Or if your job description includes reviewing the work of others (ahem, legal writing profs, I am talking to you), don't you sometimes wonder how those writers could have missed seeing obvious errors?

Either way, you will enjoy reading an article by Delaware attorney John J. Paschetto, published in the February 2008 issue of The Practical Lawyer magazine, Beyond Redlines and Spell-Check: Proofreading Tips from the Dark Ages (in pdf format). Paschetto explains the difference between editing and proofreading, and he identifies many of the common forms of errors that writers tend not to see when reviewing their own work. He explains the advantages of proofing in stages, and he offers several low-tech strategies for catching and correcting such errors, including a checklist that illustrates his suggested method at work. 

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