[Bups-dis] How do you proof-read?

[Nick Jones]

> my mind (and body) are telling me "just hand the **** thing in!", and 
> my will-power agrees.

Sadly, Edward, many of my students seem to take the same attitude, with 
the result that I regularly see essays that would disgrace a 14 year 
old.  The candidate may be a genius, but how are we supposed to tell, if 
their essay looks like it was knocked off on the back of an envelope 
while waiting for a bus? If the student doesn't take their work 
seriously enough to read it over and make it as good as they can, why 
should I put in the work to understand it?

Rant over, for now. I think that word processing is a particular problem 
here, since it encourages extraneous phrases and words left over from 
editing (grr!), and tempts students to read their essay on screen and 
then print it out and hand it in. My advice; print it out; leave it on 
your desk for a day (if you don't have a day, you should have started 
earlier, and I have no sympathy). Then read it when you have an hour to 
spare, read it as though you'd never seen it before (classic problem: 
the mindset that says 'oh, they'll know what I mean.' Clearly, we 
don't), and annotate it. THEN return to the WP and improve it, with your 
printed copy to hand. Much easier to think, and read, off paper.

best
Nick Jones