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50 years of success - Established 1974

50 Years of Success
Established in 1974

"Helping you gain
.control of your career"

What is Proofreading?

 

Proofreading is the last stage of the editing process and is carried out once the final revisions and edits of the text have taken place. A proof is the final copy of the text in the layout that’s been decided for publication and all that remains is for it to be checked for the following errors:

  • misspellings
  • punctuation
  • grammar
  • spacing
  • typographical
  • alignment
  • font and style

 

Proofreaders are required by every organisation, no matter how big or small, and every individual who produces writing that will be available for others to read. As you can imagine, if this text if for a company it will be vitally important that it is accurate – it’ll be representing the company in the public domain!

What Does a Proof Look Like?

This really depends on what you are working on. If you are working for an individual on a dissertation, for example, you’ll probably only get a copy of the final draft for checking. However, if you are working for a publishing house it’s a little different. The proofreader will usually be sent both the original copy of the manuscript and the proof, which has been set out as it’ll appear when it’s finally published. Your job as the proofreader is to compare the two versions, finding and highlighting any errors. As the errors are identified you’ll mark them with the appropriate proofreading standard symbols. The checked proof is then sent back to the typesetters to be corrected. It is then returned to a proofreader – not necessarily the same one – for checking again and so on until the text is error free.

If you want to learn more about proofreading and how you can become a full or part-time proofreader why not request a free Proofreading and Copy Editing course brochure.