4 critical reasons to seek out professional proofreading

Many students and academics still believe that proofreading their work is a waste of time, but this overlooks the countless benefits offered by editing and revising your written work. If you don’t have the time to check over your work, using professional proofreading services is a perfect way to achieve clear writing without having to interrupt your productivity and usual workflow. With this theme in mind, the purpose of this article is to outline four key reasons why it is worth seeking out professional proofreading.

1. Productivity

The need to double-check your scientific manuscript, student essay, or marketing presentation can interrupt your productivity and usual workflow. This is because, once you’ve written a document, re-reading it – rather than moving onto another task – is time-consuming. For this reason, seeking out professional proofreading services plays a valuable role in increasing your productivity.

To give another example, if you are ready to submit your PhD thesis in preparation for your upcoming thesis defence, spending time editing and proofreading your manuscript can reduce the time you have available for other important tasks. Many PhD theses are over 100,000 words long, and if other duties are pressing, including time spent on thesis defence preparation, professional proofreading becomes worthwhile.

2. Authority

The smallest grammatical error in a document can have a significant influence on the authority of the arguments and statements you make. One of the main reasons for this is because the reader may begin to think that you were not paying attention while writing the document. In a student essay, markers and other readers of your document may wonder: “If the writer didn’t proofread their work properly, what does this say about the thoroughness of the research?”

3. Machines vs. Humans

Spellcheckers in the twenty-first century, such as Grammarly, rely on sophisticated, state-of-the-art techniques such as artificial neural networks and deep learning to offer recommendations to writers. Even spellcheckers like Microsoft Word, despite using less advanced technologies, can be helpful when reading and writing documents.

Although these spellcheckers are advanced, they are still no match for a proofreader or editor (even a poorly-trained service provider). At the most basic level of language, for example, software applications such as Grammarly and Microsoft Word cannot identify mixed-up homophones (i.e., words that have different spellings but the same sound, such as “bear” and “bare”).

4. Improve Your Marks

For students who are writing academic essays, and even authors who are self-publishing or opting for a more traditional publication route, seeking out a proofreader for your work can significantly improve your chances of success. Proofreaders, given their qualifications and experience, can offer a professional edge in polishing your writing. For example, many universities offer up to 15% of the marks in an academic essay for spelling, grammar, and written communication, which highlights the importance of working with a proofreader, the benefits are that your writing technique will improve, as most providers identify and give details of the areas of improvement to their client's work.