Before you publish your article online and hand it over to the readers, it is essential that you check it in every way possible. Make sure you deliver the quality consistent with the brand you are trying to build. When planning time for writing, always include enough time to check over what you have written. Nobody is perfect, but try to be as near to perfection as possible.
Before you even start writing your first article, you have to decide whether you want to use spelling and grammar as it is used in the United States or United Kingdom usage. If you are a native speaker from either side of the big pond, that decision is an easy one to make. If on the other hand English is an acquired language, the decision has to be made and stuck to. Mixing them both will give readers a headache and they won't come back.
My primary language is German, and I acquired my English in school; this means I am used to British English and not American. For blogging, I must make a decision as to the blog's spelling grammar practices as I said above. There is another aspect to this decision; if you are used to certain idiomatic words like autumn, and not fall, you might get into trouble. And there are other specialties you might not be aware of having acquired the language in school. Using American spelling with British expressions makes for odd reading, and vice versa; this is something you’ll have to consider when making your choice.
I write on Microsoft Word and use Thesaurus as a primary check on spelling and grammar. It is not perfect but it keeps me out of trouble for most of the time. The spelling and grammar check is but the first step of several when you proofread your article before publishing. Before you let go of your brainchild, make sure you get everything right.
One check you have to run is on any figures, measurements, or currencies you might have included in your article. Are the correct figures, measurements, or currencies there in the first place? And secondly, are any conversions into other currencies or measurements correct? Did you use calendar dates in a consistent format? And in historical context, did you use AD and BC or CE and BCE? Did you apply the same pair throughout the article and indeed throughout all your articles? Did you manage not to mix them up?
The next check is the hard one. You'll have to go over the use of words. Did you pick the correct word for the correct meaning. Even native English speakers are not always sure of the concise use of certain words. Checking words you are not entirely sure of for their correct use is time well spent. For British English, The Oxford Dictionary is my preferred source for any definition; for American English you could use The New Oxford American Dictionary. Both are included in Kindle should you consider buying one.
Special care should be given to any words and expressions you had to translate with Google Translate. Make sure you got the right word, not just the one Google happened to put at the top of its list. The trick is to run your sentence back through Google Translate and compare the two. Expressions are almost impossible to translate with a translator software. 'Fish on the hook' translated into German is not an expression any German might recognize. 'Fish on the fishing rod' doesn't sound like English. The expressions have the same meaning, but use different imagery.
There are many sites on the Internet that offer you lists of synonyms when struggling for the correct word. Don’t use these synonyms without first making sure that their meaning is consistent with what you actually mean. There are many more wrong ‘synonyms’ proposed on such sites than there are correct ones. The problem with 'synonyms' applied in the wrong context is the reason why article spinners don’t work. And talking of synonyms; keep your hands of words and expressions on loan from other languages. I'm desperately sick of reading 'the hoi polloi' from people with no clue of language; that means journalists.
The final step of your proofreading is to put aside your article for some time and do something else. When you come back to it after an hour or two or even a day or two, start reading it again with fresh eyes. You are now able to find the spelling mistakes you missed before: Like the single 'o' standing all alone where you wanted to write 'to', or the 'likes' that had become 'lies'. Try to read your article as if you knew nothing about what you are going to read about. It will help you find inconsistencies in logic and leaps of faith where explanations might be helpful. Once you have eliminated typos and filled the holes in your logic you are ready to publish.
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