All the hard work you put into your thesis can be undermined by a single typo. Proofreading is an essential part of the thesis editing process, which is why it is surprising that so many students just glance through their papers before hitting print and turning in their work. As a result, there are students who lose points on their dissertation, points which they could easily have retained with some simple proofreading.

Relying on the spellchecker and grammar checker in your word processing software is a mistake, as we all know. There have been countless times where something has slipped through the cracks, resulting in a preventable error. Instead, start by reading your dissertation out loud. This might feel strange at first, but when you read out loud you catch awkward phrasing and typos that your eyes skip right over when you read silently.