"Words are secret doorways and I hold all the keys." Khaled Hosseini
PROOFREADING SERVICE
You’ve finally finished your document – you’ve spent time hunting for the right words, and you’ve deliberated over whether to use a comma or a semi-colon! It’s now time to let me read your work and pick up those mistakes before your reader sees them.
Proofreading will be the final job that is carried out before your document is published or shared. You’re trusting me to be meticulous and methodical while checking for errors and inconsistencies.
What is proofreading?
When I am proofreading a text, I am committed to:
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eliminating errors.
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achieving consistency.
This means that I only change what is incorrect because it can be proved using resources such as a dictionary or a grammar guide.
“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back.”
Oscar Wilde
What does a proofreader focus on?
I correct:
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spellings, grammar and punctuation mistakes.
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typographical errors and word processing mistakes.
I identify inconsistencies in:
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font type, colour and size within the body of the text and in any headings or subheadings.
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the use of proper nouns.
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the heading and subheadings.
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the page and/or chapter numbers.
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the line spacing throughout the text.
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any numbering system that has been used.
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using the house style.*
It’s a known fact that mistakes are difficult to spot if you’ve made them yourself.
Whilst being interviewed by WIRED, Tom Stafford, Professor of Cognitive Science at Sheffield University, stated: "We don't catch every detail [when we read our own writing], we're not like computers or NSA databases. Rather, we take in sensory information and combine it with what we expect, and we extract meaning."
So, why not let me catch those details for you?
*A house style is the client’s preferred presentation and layout for the document.
