You have probably never thought of this as a career, but there are many people who make their living by proofreading the work of others. The basic rule is that no one should proof their own material and there are a couple of good reasons for that. Writers tend to see what they think they have written. And they're too close to the subject at hand to be truly objective. If you want to be a proofreader, here are a few tips:
- Carefully check your own communication. If your email to a potential client is riddled with errors, it will reflect badly on your ability to do proofreading in the first place. If you send out messages with spelling or grammatical errors, you will be dropped like the proverbial hot brick. You get no second changes in proofreading.
- Use spell check (seems obvious) - but don't count on it entirely. It won't pick up misused words or phrases. Also, today's WORD grammar checker is pretty good compared with how it used to be. Switch it on in the Options area and use it. It'll catch stuff you might not have ever thought about.
- Use the Internet to research standard usage, Google for spelling, even keep a dictionary handy as some spell check programs aren't as good as others. Always try to use Microsoft Word if you can.
- You'll do your best work when you're fresh and alert. You'll be proofreading for meaningful content as well as for typing errors, so make sure you are wide awake and alert - when you are at your best.
- Read the project out loud. It slows you down and makes errors more prominent. And you will also HEAR the mistakes as you read them.
- Read the material at least twice. Proofreaders need to border on obsessive to read for content, typos, and incorrect grammar. You'll always catch more the second time around no matter how carefully you think you've read the material.
- Take some time out. Reading the same project over and over again is tiring and makes catching errors more difficult, plus it puts your brain to sleep and makes you tired. Take a break before you start the second reading. Make some coffee, walk the dog, or do something to get away from the project completely. When you return to the project you will see it differently.
Additional points to think about.
When we are proofing a document for spelling – and sometimes grammatical - errors, we don’t really see spelling errors as in wrongly spelled words or by the letters being incorrect. We actually see little pictures of words. Yes, we get accustomed to seeing words as pictures and if the picture looks right, then we take no notice. But now and then the picture doesn't look right, or looks funny, or different somehow to what we are accustomed to seeing. This tells our brain that something is incorrect and then we fix it. Generally, if something does not look right on a page, then it is usually wrong.
Grammar proofing is a little harder inasmuch that sometimes we have to switch the order of the words to make it look correct.
Another point that (especially) writers seem to fall down on is the readability of their words. They just rattle it onto the page and keep on rattling it until they feel they need a new paragraph. In published book format, this may be OK because the publishing house will most likely format the book as to how they want it to look – or to meet a certain writing standard. But if we are writing for business, documentation, help files, e-books and anything else that is not going into a proper bound type of book, then it is essential that we make it readable.
When someone is browsing selected copy, if it looks a little difficult to read, their brain will register that and they soon lose interest. Always try and think of your readers and make it easy to read and presentable. Use sans serif fonts (Arial, Verdana etc.) for easier reading.
Writing, editing and proofreading don't come naturally. Like most tasks, the more you do them, the better you'll get.
