What questions should you ask before hiring a professional proofreader?

Proofreaders work on all kinds of sensitive, mission-critical documents, whether for researchers submitting journal articles, students submitting dissertations, or businesses releasing annual reports. For this reason, if you have a document that requires hiring proofreading services, it is important to ensure that you receive professional proofreading, as opposed to unreliable and low-quality proofreading.

As a business, academic, student, author, or any other person needing to communicate in a clear and error-free manner,proofreading is highly valuable, and it offers a significant return on investment in terms of time and – in many cases – money. However, ensuring that your documents are checked over by a qualified and experienced person is not totally straightforward.

Before your order a service, it is essential to have a short conversation and, ideally, a lengthier email exchange with a potential proofreader (either a freelancer or a proofreader’s representative within a company). During this email exchange, or during your short telephone or Skype conversation with the proofreader, you should also be sure to ask the right questions to gauge their suitability.

A useful way to increase your chances of finding a proofreader who fits your project is to ask a candidate about their background, as well as their previous experience as a proofreader.At this point, don’t get too focused on finding an expert in your field; instead, you should prioritise finding an experienced proofreader who has worked on similar documents in the past. If you are interested in receiving an editing service, it is imperative to work with an editor who is experienced in your field. For example, if you are writing a paper that focuses on the field of computer science, it is worthwhile to find an editor with some knowledge of the subject, whereas this is not so with proofreading.

In professional proofreading, it is increasingly popular among companies, as well as freelancers, to offer free samples of the service offerings. As a case in point, if you do a Google search, or use any other well-known search engine,for professional proofreading or proofreading services, you will be able to find companies that offer a certain number of words free of charge. If you find a proofreader who you believe will be a good fit for your writing project, it is also important to ask them about the possibility of receiving a free sample, even if they do not advertise this.

A critically important and often-overlooked question, which many first-time customers forget to ask, relates to the issue of document deadlines. At certain professional proofreading providers, the services on offer can only be returned with long deadlines, whereas in other cases, deadlines of up to 5 hours can be found. If you have an urgent document but the company you have found does not list a quick enough turnaround, be sure to get in touch with them. In most cases, proofreading services providers will be happy to accommodate your deadline.