Sharon Gray – Professional Proofreader
How much does it cost?
What can a good proofreader do for a piece of text?
According to the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, it is:
'Careful reading (and rereading) of a (yet to be finally-printed) document, to detect any errors in spelling, punctuation, or grammar. It may also involve checking of different elements of a layout (such as headlines, paragraphs, illustrations, and colours) for their correct dimensions, placement, type, etc. Every author knows that (despite the spelling checking abilities of modern word processors) a human proofreader is indispensable.'
Traditionally, this is done on pages that have been typeset ready for printing, so changes are indicated by marking up the manuscript, electronically or by hand. But often, nowadays, edits can be made directly onto the Word document, especially when a book is to be self-published.
In practical terms, it means that I will:
In practical terms, it means that I will:
- Check that the spelling is correct
- Check that the punctuation is correct
- Check that the hyphenation is correct and consistent
- Check page numbers are correct and consistently placed
- Check that any tables, illustrations, maps, diagrams etc, are complete, consistent and correctly labelled
- Check that the capitalisation has been applied consistently.
- Check that grammar usage is correct
- Check that the punctuation is consistent
- Check that the style is consistent
- Check that the layout is as intended
- Check that headings are consistent
- Check that any contents page correctly references the correct pages.
© Bedwas Editorial Services, 2022
Photo by Annie Spratt at Unsplash