Proofreading

What is it?

The final check, tidy up and polish of a text that corrects problems that have slipped through previous edits and the typesetting. It’s the last quality check before publication.

That perhaps makes it sound like a quick read-through, but there’s more to it than that. It involves careful attention to detail and a practiced eye for correction on a number of issues.

What does it cover?

The main tasks are:

• Finding errors in spelling and punctuation

• Inconsistency in style, for example hyphenated words or capitalisation

• Checking page numbering and table of contents

• Checking text headings and page headers/footers

• Checking that text is correctly laid out and formatted, including word breaks

• Identifying missing and repeated text, or missing elements like illustrations

• Highlighting wrongly placed or incorrect captions and annotations

I’m flexible in terms of format. I can mark up a PDF or InDesign file, or in Word if preferred.

What isn’t proofreading?

Because the proofreader is usually working on formatted text, their intervention is ideally limited. Proofreading would not normally undertake rewording of sentences, structural interventions like reordering blocks of text or inserting headings, or fact checking - these things are covered by copy and line editing at an earlier stage of the process. However, if something seems wrong then I will always raise a query rather than overlook it.

How can I find out more?

You can get in touch to talk about your needs and request a sample edit. I’ll gather some information from you and complete an edit on a short section of your text, returning a marked-up document along with any other necessary documentation. It’ll give you a good idea of what a complete proofread will look like, and help you decide whether I’m the right editor for your project.