Benefits of Proofreading

Many people may question why they need to use a professional proofreading service in their professional or academic careers. But there are many benefits to using a proofreading service such as providing objectivity, providing reassurance of the quality of the document and protecting a business or brand from any reputational damage that may come from errors or confusion.

 

Proofreading is the last step in checking and reviewing a document before it is published. A proofreading service will check for accuracy and consistency as well as the standard checks listed below:

• -       Grammatical errors
• -       Spelling mistakes such as capitalisation and hyphenation
• -       Formatting errors
• -       Check for sense and understanding
• -       Check on word usage, such as subject-verb usage
• -       Incorrect or inconsistent page, chapter and section numbering
• -       Ensure headers and footers are correct and consistent across the document
• -       Incorrect captions on tables, figures and photos
• -       Consistency in the table of contents
• -       Consistency and correctness in referencing

 

Some less obvious and less well-known checks that will also be carried out by a proofreader are as follows:

-       Any end-of-line breaks that might cause confusion

-       Check the references cited in the document to ensure they are consistent. A proofreader will not however check the validity of the references themselves.

-       Check for style, design and layout

-       Check for “widows” which is a short last line of a paragraph at the top of a page, or “orphans” which is a short line of a paragraph at the bottom of a page

-       Alert the author to any areas of the text that are not clear

 

The proofreading process is a key part of the creation and publication of a document, in a range of contexts, from a university paper to a corporate press release. A proofreading service can find and fix any errors or inconsistencies before the document is published and any mistakes, which could prove irreversible if left unchecked!

 

Below are two examples that show the importance, and benefits of proofreading.

 

Example 1: When proofreading a financial textbook, the proofreader noticed that a key diagram that was described and referred to in text, was missing. The diagram was essential to the chapter and its omission would have had a knock-on effect on figure references and page numbering.

 

Example 2: When proofreading a company’s Annual Report and Accounts, the proofreader noticed a spelling mistake in the job title of one of the directors. This was then able to be corrected before the document was published for the world to see!

 

These examples demonstrate the importance of proofreading across a range of written texts. Whether it be a book, journal, report, commercial document, press release or social media post, each must be proofread before publication. There is only one chance to impress your audience, and an inaccurate or confusing document will reflect badly on yourself, ora business.