Help needed - proofreading and dyslexia

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DS (Yr10) has just re-written an English essay for school. The whole essay is riddled with errors, missing punctuation, repeated points, incoherence, (along with some really good, articulate bits). He is saying that he just cannot proofread - he says he cannot see the mistakes. I am trying to be sympathetic, I know he finds it hard. I am not even mentioning the spelling.

Does anyone have any advice on helping him proofread? Print it out first? Tackle one issue at a time? I don't want to come down heavy on him because I know how hard it is for him but at the same time I suspect that he could try a little harder rather than avoid facing it. I really don't know. There needs to be a balance and I am not sure where to draw the line.

Same here. I suspect there's some work avoidance, but I don't want to overwhelm her making her do things she genuinely can't.

My dyslexic DD proofreads backwards to check for spelling. words in isolation without context are easier for spotting mistakes. Do this and then read aloud for punctuation.

As a dyslexic I find proof reading tricky. My technique is to write a plan with my points all in order to give the structure of the essay to start with. This really helps avoid repeating points to as I tick them off as I go.
I was taught this as an exam technique at sixth from college. I write plan then detail points, a line across the page then the essay. If I finish I put a line though the plan if I don't I leave it.
This has served me in good stead through two degrees, postgrad qualifications and now MBA.
I wish I had known it at GCSE I think I would have one much better.

If he'd like a challenge, you could do what we do in Tracks Literacy. Print several copies of his writing and make a list of the categories of mistake - include spelling. Write the number of clear examples of errors in each category e.g. spelling 6.

He sets a timer for 10 minutes and has to find and change as many mistakes as he can in the time. He can use a dictionary/phone to find spellings.

Timer goes off: you quickly scan his work - point for every valid change.
Give him clues about stuff he missed/didn't have time for.

Give him a second copy. He has to start completely again (as though he'd not already done it) and see if he can beat his score. He might even find s/thing you missed! Oh - and when he repeats it, he's not allowed to look at what he's done before.

He'll get practice in identifying mistakes and in writing spellings correctly. In school it's difficult to stop pupils doing repeated checks.

Definitely proofread on paper, double spaced, rather than on the screen. Use a ruler and a pointer to follow along the text. There is also available specialist dyslexia software which will read the text aloud. Grammarly is a free on-line programme which will pick up some punctuation and grammar errors. Another good technique is to do a "reverse outline" - he takes the written text and creates an outline from it - this should help spot repetition or structural incoherence.

However, my experience with my daughter is that she needed a great deal of instruction, practice and repeated explanation to understand punctuation and grammar, as well as usage - which words go with which. She did improve over her university course, however, as she was reading a fair amount of academic writing. This is what is lacking, of course, in most secondary schools, where textbook use is nonexistent or minimal.

Thank you for all this excellent advice. He agreed to go over it with a ruler and did manage to pick out some mistakes. He was however going far too fast. He's going to have to repeat this several times. He will also have to try reading it out aloud but when he has done this in the past, he reads what is supposed to be there, rather than what is acutally there.

The structure of the essay was fairly good as I printed him a really good writing frame which he did stick to (for the first time).

I am going to look into your other suggestions (reverse outline, reading backwards etc).

He's going to be using a laptop for his GCSEs but he won't be able to print out and proofread in the exam.