I’m currently proofreading a book chapter I co-wrote on drug interactions of cardiac drugs. It’s complicated by the fact it is in an American publication, which means American spellings and American drug names, but I loathe proofreading. I find the concentration required painful, especially when mistakes appear elusive. Then all of a sudden you spot a typo out of the corner of your eye when you walk past the document – which you had read about fifteen times without noticing. What’s that all about?
People who do proofreading for a living are heroes.
4 Comments
as somebody who used to do this for a living for pharmaceutical journals, and is about to waste his weekend proofing his wife’s 15,000 word dissertation, I shall bask in the warm glow of your adoration with quiet contentment
There’s basking in Saskatoon today also. Thankyou. (We charge reasonable rates and can promise rapid turnaround. Any and all material considered.)
Now, about downloading Lisbon Tram 28 …
Some proofreading tips:
1. Never proofread your own work
2. The only way to proof phone numbers is to dial them
3. Read the copy backwards
4. Try proofreading aloud
5. Proofread both on screen and on paper
6. Separate copy editing for meaning from proofreading
7. Proofread for one type of a mistake at a time.
8. Look for misspellings or typos; incorrect word use; missing words; formatting or style problems; and factual errors
9. Review prominent or called-out copy within a layout separately and more carefully – this is often where items can be overlooked
10. Always remember “public” is spelt with and “L”!
I used to do it for a living, and still do a little. I do mostly copy editing and indexing now, and both of them on screen. I’ve found so much crap grammar and punctuation in what are supposed to be quality books of late (and when you’re indexing you can’t pounce on an error and correct it, because it’s not your job to do that, and, anyway, you’re probably indexing from a PDF – most frustrating!) that I wonder whether copy editors and proofreaders still exist, or whether publishers are sending stuff out, for cheapness, to other countries to be handled by people for whom English is not their first language. As for newspapers …