Guidelines to Help You Proofread Email

• It ensures readers are receiving the message you wanted to send.
• It impresses readers with your attention to detail.
• It shows readers you are educated and intelligent.

If your email writing contains errors, your team members, managers, clients, and vendors may believe you’re uneducated, unintelligent, careless, or incompetent. This writing training will teach you to proofread email effectively. The training is part of the course Writing Effective Workplace Email offered by the Business Writing Center. Read more about the course

Writing Email Guideline 1

Read your email with attention to four critical areas in which errors often occur

After you finish your email, stop and proofread carefully. Read with attention to the following four critical areas of email proofreading. For very important emails proofread in five passes, one for each area of concern. Proofread your email writing for content. Email proofreading for number Proofreading for clarity Proofreading for usage Proofreading for format and structure

Writing Email Guideline 2

For very important email, print out a copy and proofread it

If this email contains important information, such as a contract offer, print out a copy and proofread the printed copy. Have someone else proofread the email writing also to make sure the figures are correct.

Writing Email Guideline 3

Focus when you proofread your email writing. Stop if you are interrupted.

When you proofread email, go into a proofreading mind set. Focus on reading more carefully than you normally read. You will be proofreading your email writing for only a few minutes, so you can expend the extra mental energy. Turn off the radio or other distraction. If someone interrupts you, don’t continue proofreading. Stop, take care of the interruption, and return to proofreading the email writing.

Writing Email Guideline 4

If you are having difficulty following your email writing, read it aloud.

If some text in your email writing is difficult to follow, read it aloud to see whether it contains the content you want it to have. Consider revising it. If you must read your email writing aloud to understand it, your reader is sure to have a problem with it.

Writing Email Guideline 5

When you are proofreading email, if you read a sentence and you have to read it again, change it

Don’t leave text in your email writing that seems unclear, even though you did figure out what it really meant the second time you read it. The fact that you had trouble with it the first time means the reader probably will have trouble with your email writing.

Writing Email Guideline 6

Proofread every letter and space in your email writing, no matter where it falls

Proofread every letter and space in your email writing. Proofread the title, headings, tables, page numbers, and all other parts of the email writing. In the body of the email, start in the upper left corner of the screen and end in the lower right corner. Do not skip around as you proofread your email writing. Follow it from beginning to end. You want your email writing to be as correct as you can make it for three reasons: If you send out email writing that contains errors, your team members, managers, clients, and vendors may believe you’re uneducated, unintelligent, careless, or incompetent.

Writing Email Guideline 7

Procedure for Proofreading Your Email Writing

When you proofread your business writing, you must approach the text differently from the way you approach it when you are reading for content or reading to edit. Editing and proofreading are two different activities you must approach in different ways. Proofread after you edit. Follow this procedure to proofread your email. We’ll imagine you’re proofreading this text:

1. Proofread email writing word by word.

Don’t slide over your business writing the way you normally read. Focus on each word and the modifiers, articles, or prepositions accompanying it.

The consultant prepared a report on the feasibility of changing our software system without

2. Then read phrases in the email writing after you’ve read a series of words.

This is what you would see as you read phrases:

The consultant prepared a report on the feasibility of changing our software system without much expense . . .

This procedure may seem time consuming, but as you become accustomed to it, your eyes will take you to the words and phrases effortlessly, reading the words, then the phrases:

The consultant prepared a report the consultant prepared a report on the feasibility of changing our software system on the feasibility of changing our software system

If the sentence is longer or is complicated, read the entire sentence again, looking for sentence errors.

3. Watch for unusual or special words in your business writing that you must check twice.

In the example, you would see “effect,” which is often confused with “affect.” Look twice at it. You would see “manpower,” which might be “man power.” If you have any doubts about something in your business writing, look it up in the dictionary. Use your dictionary regularly. In this case, “manpower” is one word.

4. Look at punctuation specifically.

In the example, you see “it was possible—but would not guarantee,” with a dash in it. Look twice at that. Is the dash the longer em dash —, or is it just a hyphen -? Is this the appropriate place for an em dash? If you have doubts, don’t use the punctuation or look up the rule in your grammar textbook. As you proofread the above sample of business writing, you would see this sentence: “Her report was an eye opener; it made me think twice.” It has a semicolon. That’s an unusual punctuation mark that causes business writers problems. You must have a complete sentence on either side of the semicolon. Double-check that.

5. We recommend you not use dashes, semicolons, ellipses, and other unusual punctuation in your business writing.

You don’t need them in business writing, and many business writers don’t understand how to use them or read them. Proofread every email you send out in this way, slowly and carefully. That is the only way to produce business writing that is consistently correct.

Writing Effective Workplace Email Course

The Writing Effective Workplace Email course teaches you how to write clear, well-organized email that has the impact you want, motivates your readers to respond as you expect, and accomplishes your business objectives. It presents a highly-structured approach to writing email that you can apply to all email and memo writing. Your instructor coaches you through learning the skills and revising your emails. More information . . .