I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best proofreader in the world. Far from it, in fact. And I've had my share of "horrable" typos slip through.

My problem is that, as a creative writer, I get completely carried away trying to get the words right. So by the time I edit, cut, zap, expand, re-write, discard, tweak, change, contract and re-arrange all the words to make the sentence say exactly what I want it to say within the exact amount of space that is allocated to it... I just don't see the sentence on the screen anymore. It's engraved in my mind. And what I see on the screen is exactly what's my mind wants my brain to see.

Neat mind-trick that! But it can be a kind of embarrassing trick for the mind to play on a professional writer if it makes you frequently overlook typos, spellos, no-nos and so much more! But how do you stop a very active mind playing tricks like this on you?

Here are a few professional proofreading techniques that might work for you next time you have an important proofreading job to do.

• Tip 1. Always use the spell check - always!
• Tip 2. Print out your copy before you proof it - believe me, it's easier to proof from paper than to proof on screen.
• Tip 3. Read the copy out loud as you proof it - this forces you to slow down and it brings the extra sense of 'sound,' as well as sight, into the proofreading process.
• Tip 4. Give it time - set your work aside for a little while before you proof it. This gives your brain time to forget what you've written, so you'll see everything with a fresh pair of eyes.
• Tip 5. Show your copy to someone else. No matter how well you proof your own work you are simply not going to beat a new pair of eyes looking over it.
• Tip 6. But, perhaps the best tip of all is to read everything backwards from the bottom of the page to the top.

Ok, this last strategy is slow, tedious and often, meaningless! But it sure does work. Try it sometime and see for yourself how effective it is. In fact, why not try it now. Here's tip No.6 again, only this time it's written backwards, exactly as you would proofread it if you were reading everything backwards:

.top the to page the of bottom the from backswards everything read to is all of tip best the perhaps, But.

Did you spot that superfluous letter 's' in the word 'backward'? Easy, wasn't it? As the professionals say 'it's easy when you go back!'