Assignments

To make proofreading more effective, make your assignment as easy to read as possible. If you can, print out the document to proofread it. It is often easier to catch errors in print rather than on a screen. You can mark any errors by hand and then make changes on a computer once you have finished reading the whole assignment. 

If you are reading from a screen, increase the zoom on your document to make the text very large. This will help you catch any errors.

It can feel a bit silly to read your assignment out loud to yourself, but it is the best way to catch any mistakes. As you read out loud, you are more likely to notice when sentences are too long or too short, when punctuation is incorrect or missing, and when certain sections of your writing don’t make sense. Here are some things to look (and listen!) out for when reading out loud:

• If you have to pause and think about whether a sentence or section makes sense, make it clearer. If you can’t tell what it’s trying to say, your lecturer probably won’t understand, either.
• If you find yourself running out of breath while reading, your sentences may be too long. Aim for sentences you can read comfortably without running out of breath.
• If you naturally pause at certain points while you are reading, you might consider adding in some punctuation at those points. You could add commas, semicolons or full stops to break up long sentences.
• If you find yourself struggling to read certain sections out loud, it could be because your language is too complicated. Try rewriting the section with simple language and see if it is easier to read. Remember: if you are struggling to read your own work, your lecturer will definitely struggle to read it.

The best way to know whether your work is clear or not is to ask someone else to read it. That person doesn’t have to know about the topic to tell you whether your writing is clear enough to understand, so ask a family member or friend to look over your work.

Students at University College Birmingham have access to a range of support to help with their writing. All students have access to the desktop version of Microsoft Word, which has functions to make editing and proofreading easier. 

Students also have free access to Grammarly Premium, a piece of software that suggests improvements for your writing as you write.

To sign up for Grammarly, follow these steps:

1. Go to www.grammarly.com/enterprise/signup 
2. Enter your UCB student email address and create a password. 
3. You will receive an email from Grammarly asking you to verify your email address. Once you have done this, your registration will be complete.

Please note: as a University College Birmingham student, your Grammarly Premium account is free to use. If at any point after you have registered, Grammarly asks you to pay to use its Premium service, please report this to the DICE team (dice@ucb.ac.uk), and they will resolve it for you.

Students can also book individual appointments with the Academic Skills Centre to receive advice about how to improve assignments. Please note that the tutors in the Academic Skills Centre will not proofread your work, but they can advise you on how to better edit and proofread your work yourself.