1
Catch “form” where the sentence requires “from.”
8 Proofreading a Novel Examples
Use these examples to study structure, specificity, tone, and variation. They are demonstrations—not claims about a real person or organization unless the example itself makes that explicit.
Before you copy
What to notice in the examples
Effective proofreading is performed on a stable manuscript or formatted proof, uses multiple focused passes, resists rewriting at the last minute, and checks both text and page-level presentation so corrections do not introduce new errors.
- Text-level pass for typos, missing words, punctuation, and repeated text.
- Consistency pass for chapter titles, scene breaks, names, and style-sheet items.
- Layout pass for headers, page numbers, widows/orphans, spacing, and broken formatting.
- Final correction check after changes have been applied.
2
Find a duplicated sentence created during copy-and-paste revision.
3
Correct a chapter heading that uses “Twenty-One” while all others use numerals.
4
Notice two consecutive pages with the same running header after a section break.
5
Fix an em dash followed by an unintended space when the project style uses closed em dashes.
6
Flag a character name misspelled only once near the end of the manuscript.
7
Restore italics that disappeared in one line after file conversion.
8
Remove an accidental blank page created by a manual page break before a chapter.
Keep the underlying decision or pattern, then replace the subject, evidence, relationship, constraints, and tone with details that belong to your situation. If your final line still works after swapping only one noun, it may be too close to the example.