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PROOFREADING
Is Nitpicking Really Necessary?
Proofreading text is a critical and last step required before it is published.
One finds various books that have a powerful message and in which the author used beautiful language. In such books, one little misplaced comma will not spoil the book, and few readers will notice it. In books that do not keep the reader spellbound, one little misplaced comma will be very visible and distracting.
Not all books are so brilliant that they can get away with typographical errors, but even brilliant books lose their glamour when a careful reader notices the errors. The same goes for any other printed material or web & blog content.
If you want to be proud of your work, it is best to have an external proofreader check it for you. Once you notice your own errors in print, I can guarantee you, it affects the effort with which you promote your work. When you produce work that you are proud of, it will carry your marketing efforts to greater heights.
PROOFREADING IS NOT COPYEDITING
Those not in the editing business frequently confuse proofreading with copyediting. Copyediting looks at the content of a written product and requires more creativity and critical thinking skills. The copyeditor has the authority to revise and improve the author’s original work, while the proofreader mostly uses proofing marks to point out any errors after the copyeditor's corrections were made.
WHAT IS PROOFREADING
Proofreading is the skill used for scanning and marking grammar and spelling errors. A proofreader will mark errors such as punctuation, capitalisation, numbers, or other surface errors.
The emphasis is on scanning, as the proofreader does not consider the meaning of words and terminology. The focus is only on whether the text form is correct. Proofreading requires someone who has an eye for detail, and who can be consistently accurate to pick up errors during the last stage of production before publication or going live if it is a webpage.
Spellcheckers included in word processors help, but they can never replace the interpretive human mind or cognition processes.
THE PROCESS
The proofreader works on a copy. They do this either on a hard copy with red ink to mark errors with traditional proofreading marks, or on an electronic copy using the mark-up facility for PDF files.
The proofreader will use a style sheet that they receive from the copyeditor. The style sheet will explain what style the client wants.
WHAT IT ENTAILS
As proofreading is the final pre-production stage, the proofreader cannot make or suggest any major changes to the material.
The proofreader will, for example:
IN CLOSING
Print and online publishers, to cut back on costs, eliminate the proofreading phase of the production cycle. This leads to using a weak medium to communicate to your stakeholders. Communicators say that the medium is the message. All the demanding work put into creating useful content disappears in an inferior medium.
Trying to proofread work that you created yourself is a difficult and error-prone process. Since you already know what you wrote, your mind fills in the gaps that you left during the creation process.
Your reader cannot read your mind–they can only read your words and see the gaps. The proofreader acts like a first-time reader and will pick up the errors passed over by the writer or copyeditor.
Contact me when you need a ‘nit-picker’ to go through your work with a fine comb.