What exactly is a proofreader?

The proof is in the reading! 1

The proof is in the reading!

JANICE GILBERT aka:

grammar geek

punctuation pedant

spelling specialist

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! What is a proofreader or copy-editor? ! Why does your writing matter? ! Should you use a spell/grammar

check tool? ! Some DIY tips ! Should you use an expert?

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What is a proofreader or copy-editor?

Someone who reads material already written by another person, not only the basics like spelling, punctuation and grammar, also they help with:

! sense and style ! clarity and ease of reading ! tone of voice appropriate for audience ! over-long sentences ! repetition or missing words

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What is a proofreader or copy-editor? They will check for:

! consistency – eg: numbers written as digits or words ! American English spellings ! obscure or foreign words ! the correct choice of there, their or they’re ! correct choice of where, wear, or we’re ! innuendos or double-entendres

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What is a proofreader or copy-editor? They look for clunky phrasing, eg:

“non-working braking system”

might be better as

“faulty brakes”

They also query doubtful facts, inconsistencies and plot holes, and check that the article holds together logically from start to finish.

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Why does your writing matter?

! Your website is your shop window. Its presentation is a reflection of you and your business.

! It should say to the viewer:

“This is a high quality product or service”

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For example...

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Why does your writing matter? ! SEO! Will your website keywords help the

Google bots find your site? If they are misspelt, they won’t be able to!

! REPUTATION AND CREDIBILITY can be enhanced or destroyed by what goes down in print.

! ATTENTION TO DETAIL MATTERS!

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Restaurant Menus Restaurants are among the worst culprits for not

proofreading their menus (Zizzi not included!)

Here’s an example a client shared with me when his restaurant offered:

“… fragrant salads of guinea ‘foul’ and new season lamb, hand ‘calved’ at the table!”

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Restaurant Menus

“Potato skins – four skins with cheese”

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Should you use a spell / grammar check tool?

! It has its uses, but NEVER rely on it! ! It doesn’t have a brain! ! It can cause you EMBARRASSMENT ... ! It can cost you MONEY!

Sometimes there is nothing a spell or grammar check can do to prevent you dropping the worst kind of clanger. It can be embarrassing at best, expensive at worst – just remember that the spell check tool doesn’t have a brain!

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Should you use a spell / grammar check tool?

Penguin Group Australia had $12,000 of additional costs to pay due to a single word in one of its cookery books.

They had to destroy and reprint 7,000 copies of The Pasta Bible when they instructed people to:

"add salt and freshly ground black people....” to a pasta recipe. The spell check would not have helped out here!

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E-mails and texting A message was sent to a businessman asking for the go-ahead to purchase some goods at a cost of £200,000.

The following response was received:

“NO PRICE TOO HIGH”

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E-mails and texting

It should have read:

“NO. PRICE TOO HIGH”

For the sake of a missing punctuation mark, this was a very expensive typo!

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Take care with people’s names!

On US TV, both Fox News and CNN announced the headline:

“Obama Bin Laden dead..."

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The Telegraph website’s headline about the world's largest high-energy particle accelerator told us:

"Large Hardon Collider breaks energy record.”

It was later corrected and changed to "Hadron".

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Newspaper headlines


Invitations and other notices

A personal experience last year after my stepfather died...

“Eulogy” “Urology”

... the study of disorders of the urinary system!

Be warned – printers do not use proofreaders – the onus is on the client to produce accurate information, not the printer.

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Should you use an expert?

Investment in a professional proofreader or copy-editor will help to ensure:

! your business maintains its reputation and credibility

! you are not sued for libel or misrepresentation

! you are not presented with huge bills for re-prints

! your website gets found easily by search engines

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Some DIY tips for proofreading your own article:

! Just like bread or pizza dough, leave your draft for a couple of hours, or overnight before publishing.

! Looking at it with a fresh eye will reveal errors you’d overlooked before.

! The secret of punctuation? Breathing.

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Some DIY tips for proofreading your own article: ! If you know there is a word you consistently misspell, use

the tool in Word’s edit menu to find and replace. Each case of that misspelling is corrected in one hit.

! Proofread from a hard copy. Errors are harder to spot on the computer screen.

! Proofread backwards to check spelling and punctuation as the words are then seen outside the context of the sentence. Start at the end of your article and work back.

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Some DIY tips for proofreading your own article: ! Check for one type of error at a time: a once-over for

spelling and punctuation, then another for grammatical errors.

! Do a consistency and fact check.

! Make sure any links work.

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Should you use an expert to help you in your writing?

! What goes down in print now can make or break your future business

! It’s up to you, but don’t let the past make your decisions for today

! Remember - first impressions count... and last... and last...

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Documents

What exactly is a proofreader?