Nothing can sabotage you more than a poorly written presentation. Proofreading is not spelling and grammar checking. Proofreading is READING. I am blessed with one of the best proofreaders known to man – my son. Ever since Alec has been able to read, I have had him read any article I published; any presentation I am about to make; or any letter I am about to submit (we just haggled about whether to use semicolons . . .). If you want to get a real feel for what you wrote, have an 8 year old read your article aloud back to you.
First, it has to make sense to you. Many times you know the material so well you forget to add all the details to help connect the dots.
Second, if it doesn’t make sense to an 8 year old, you are probably making it more complex than it really has to be.
Unfortunately, Alec is now 13 years old and is a better writer than I am. The point being most of us feel that we are terrible writers so we try to hide what we write until the very last second, and then spring the presentation on our audience. BE PROUD THAT YOU HAVE FAULTS AND FAILINGS. Find a proofreader- nearly anyone will do because we are all pretty bad at it.
However, the best person to pick is someone who you would like to HONOR by having them be “the first to read what you wrote”. You will gain so much insight into what you said versus what you really wanted to say.
If you can’t find a proofreader, record yourself reading it, and then play it back. It might be two o’clock in the morning and the presentation is the next day – but you have to do it.
UPDATE 2017: I now have a type to talk app. that reads it back to me, and I can change between 10 different voices.
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