Proofreading
“I have been correcting the proofs of my poems. In the morning, after hard work, I took a comma out of one sentence... in the afternoon I put it back again.”
— Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) | Pen-for-Rent
Are you almost ready to submit your manuscript to a journal or commercial publisher? Do you have a report for a client or your business? Perhaps you have the text for a book you want to self-publish?
Now is the perfect time to have an independent, objective reader iron out any bugs that might have escaped notice during editing.
Making it (w)rite
We’ve all seen it – the unfortunate typo or misplaced comma that stops us mid-sentence. Missing punctuation or awkward phrasing that leaves us puzzled about the meaning.
Have you considered passing your own text to a friend or colleague for that final ‘once-over’?
A careful proofread will pick up these issues, and more, saving you potential embarrassment and helping readers follow your train of thought.
Proofreading is the last stage of preparing a manuscript for publication or printing. It entails a careful check to make sure everything in the document is exactly as intended.
The formatted or typeset version is read alongside the corrected copyedit. A proofread can also be done against a nominated style guide, which sets out the preferences the document should adhere to.
The proof is checked to make sure:
all previous changes have been implemented
no spelling errors remain and no new errors have crept in
punctuation is well placed and aids understanding
heading styles and phrasing are consistent
special characters have been retained
formatting has not gone awry.
This is also the ideal time to make sure the table of contents is correct and complete, all front matter has been completed, and any appendixes or indexes have also been finalised.
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I am pleased to offer a professional proofreading service that will take your work to the next level. As your most attentive reader, I work closely with you to bring out the very best in your writing.
