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It's easy and fun to create a new wikiHow article! However, if your article is full of misspelled words and bad grammar, it can be very difficult for the reader to understand what you're trying to say. You can proofread your article to avoid that problem.

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EditSteps

  1. Proofread Your Own wikiHow Article Step 2.jpg
    1
    Cut and paste everything into a blank Word or text file once you've filled in the text box with your steps. Then use the built-in automated spell checker to find misspelled words.
    • Don't stop there, though! Even the best spell checker won't flag commonly misused words such as: "there" when you meant "their"; "you're" when you meant "your"; etc.
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  2. 2
    Use a grammar checker if your computer program has one. If not, print out your Word or text file and read it through carefully, one sentence at a time, to see if everything flows well and makes sense.
  3. Proofread Your Own wikiHow Article Step 5.jpg
    3
    Ask another person to help proofread your article whenever possible. A second set of eyes can catch things you've read twenty times but didn't really notice.
  4. Proofread Your Own wikiHow Article Step 6.jpg
    4
    If you have deliberately misspelled a word or using poor grammar to illustrate a point, put that word or phrase in quotation marks or highlight it in some way. That will make it clearer to anyone who might edit your article later.
  5. Proofread Your Own wikiHow Article Step 7.jpg
    5
    Cut and paste the corrected text back into this text box.
  6. Proofread Your Own wikiHow Article Step 8.jpg
    6
    Before you hit "publish", hit "preview" and read the whole thing again, just to make sure.
  7. Proofread Your Own wikiHow Article Step 9.jpg
    7
    Read your article through again, after you hit "Publish". You will almost always find "one more little thing" that you missed the first time through.
  8. Proofread Your Own wikiHow Article Step 10.jpg
    8
    Check any links you've added, to make sure they're working properly.
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  • Some people don't know correct grammar and could change your article to words of the wrong thing!

EditRelated wikiHows

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Article Info

Categories: Writing and Editing

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