Proofreading

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. 

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.

Because the proofreader is often 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.

I will provide a quotation upfront with a set fee based on my assessment. This way you know what you will pay before the work starts.

Yes they are. I will provide a sample copy edit based on a short extract from your work.

You’ll get back a marked up version of your document, showing all the changes and suggestions I’ve made.

All questions answered by contacting me here.