Why Spend Time on Proofreading?
Should accuracy and attention to detail be important even under tight deadlines?
Well, yes.
But a limited time frame won’t be a problem once you learn how to conduct proofreading quickly and efficiently.
Checking blog posts’ accuracy is a part of my job, but the proposed techniques work for any type of longer text.
I use them for university essays or extensive social media publications.
And I find something to improve each time.
How to Keep Your Texts Cohesive and Coherent?
In short:
Cohesion in composition - is the process of linking sentences together through various devices like repetitions, pronouns, or transitional expressions.
That guides the readers and shows the relations of different parts to each other. You can think about it as a natural “flow” of the text.
Example: Sam works in a startup. He loves his job. His job is an important part of his life.
Coherence on the other hand is what makes a string of sentences a meaningful and logical whole.
Let’s take a look at that short paragraph which I found online:
I bought some hummus to eat with celery. Green vegetables can boost your metabolism. The Australian Greens is a political party. I couldn’t decide what to wear to the new year’s party.
We see lexical links and repetitions between the sentences, however, the sequence makes absolutely no sense. This is cohesion without coherence.
What I strive for is both - that’s how we keep the readers involved and the message clear.
*Cool tip I found:
In a sentence, we can distinguish a topic (so what we write about, should be at the beginning of the sentence) and a stress (what we want to emphasize, should be at the end of the sentence).
To make sentences flow in a more cohesive way I use the stress of the previous sentence as the topic of the next one.
Example:
not following the rule:
The company expanded its product line last year. The company’s sales increased significantly.
following the rule:
The company expanded its product line last year. This expansion led to a significant increase in sales.
It’s impossible and maybe even artificial to follow all the rules at all times. But it is just cool to be aware of them and maybe double-check if the paragraph doesn’t sound right to us.
ChatGPT as a Proofreading Assistant - Practical Input
Copy and paste input to proofread efficiently with ChatGPT:
Conduct the proofreading of the text below and write down useful guidelines:
- Make a list of fragments that require improvement in terms of cohesion and coherence.
- Point out fragments that do not follow topic-stress relations (stress of the previous sentence being topic of the next sentence).
- Find additional grammatical and stylistic mistakes. Provide examples of the improved fragments.
(insert the text here)
I took a part of an article I had to proofread some time ago for my work:
(Btw, you can find the whole article published here:
Seven months ago, I decided to start taking the social media of my AI startup seriously. The goal was to increase online recognition of my product and become more involved in the field of customer service and AI technologies. So far, I have posted nearly 60 times, and although the page doesn't have a massive following, I've learned how to schedule and create content. I've also managed to build a strong showcase of our offerings and refine the language around our features. In this article, I'll guide you through the research I've conducted on social media platforms, scheduling, posting frequency, types of content, generating posts with ChatGPT, expanding the online network, and tracking valuable statistics.
A good organization was essential as the startup takes only a small fraction of my overall work time.
Here's what I've learned so that you don't have to start from scratch:
Platforms
When selecting platforms to post on, I first stated my goals for online presence and based my decisions on them. I came up with four main objectives:
- Increasing brand awareness in the Polish market.
- Providing accessible brand information for the media.
- Collecting sales contacts.
- Participating in competitions and accessing funding.
I also checked where other startups active in the AI field promote their brands. It turned out that posts and information are mostly published on LinkedIn and Twitter, less frequently on Facebook, and occasionally on Instagram or YouTube.
Out of all the available social media platforms, I decided to focus on LinkedIn while sharing basic brand information on Twitter and Facebook. Considering the startup is B2B, this seemed to be the most reasonable option.
And those are the guidelines I got:
Proofreading Guidelines:
- Cohesion and Coherence:
- The transition between the first and second paragraphs could be improved for a smoother flow. Consider connecting the goal of increasing online recognition to the actions taken on social media.
- The paragraph starting with "A good organization was essential..." lacks a clear link to the previous paragraph. Provide a smoother transition or introductory sentence to connect it to the startup's social media efforts.
- Topic-Stress Relations:
- The paragraph beginning with "A good organization was essential..." does not naturally follow from the preceding paragraph. Introduce it more clearly by referencing the startup's social media efforts and their impact on overall work time.
- Additional Grammatical and Stylistic Mistakes:
- "I've also managed to build a strong showcase of our offerings and refine the language around our features." Specify how the language was refined to enhance clarity and impact.
- The sentence "In this article, I'll guide you through the research I've conducted on social media platforms, scheduling, posting frequency, types of content, generating posts with ChatGPT, expanding the online network, and tracking valuable statistics." is lengthy. Consider breaking it down for better readability or restructuring.
- In the Platforms section, the sentence "When selecting platforms to post on, I first stated my goals for online presence and based my decisions on them." is unclear. Consider rephrasing for clarity, e.g., "I defined my goals for online presence and based my platform selection on them."
- The sentence "Out of all the available social media platforms, I decided to focus on LinkedIn while sharing basic brand in" is incomplete. Complete the thought or rephrase for clarity.
- Improved Fragments:
- Improved Cohesion:
Original: "The goal was to increase online recognition of my product and become more involved in the field of customer service and AI technologies."
Improved: "With the goal of increasing online recognition for my product and becoming more involved in the field of customer service and AI technologies, I took social media seriously seven months ago."
- Improved Topic-Stress Relations:
Original: "A good organization was essential as the startup takes only a small fraction of my overall work time."
Improved: "Given that the startup occupies only a small fraction of my overall work time, good organization became essential, especially in the context of our social media efforts."
- Improved Clarity:
Original: "Out of all the available social media platforms, I decided to focus on LinkedIn while sharing basic brand in."
Improved: "Among all available social media platforms, I chose to focus on LinkedIn, emphasizing our basic brand information."
How to Adapt Changes and Recheck the Content?
Once I decide I agree with the offered changes (if I do not like some of them, I simply delete them before making a new command), I either incorporate them myself or automate it even more and ask Chat GPT:
Now apply proposed changes and create the final version of the text. Do not change the content. Just stick to proposed improvements. Do not change its main ideas or length. Keep the language simple. Avoid using pompous expressions.
I don’t need to follow AI guidelines blindly; the text should still be authentic. However, I managed to avoid annoying typos and keep the flow of the sentences clear and logical within grammatical and stylistic norms.
Try it out, and save time on proofreading your blog posts! Focus on creative rather than tedious tasks.
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