Proofreading

Attention to detail is essential when it comes to writing. There’s nothing more embarrassing (or costly) than finalizing a document for distribution or giving a presentation only to find in mid-delivery that your work is littered with spelling mistakes, poor grammar, and rogue punctuation. Proofreading generally occurs near the end of a project, after the material has been edited and approved, just before printing, publishing, or distribution.

As proofreader, I’ll mark up a hard (printout) or digital copy of the finished product. Unless I find formatting issues, I make only minor changes that do not impact the overall aesthetic. My proofreading service involves scrutinizing the text line by line with attention to:

Spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, numerals and hyphenation
Removal of repeated words, phrases or paragraphs
Correction of any corrupted characters, sometimes created by copying or converting from one software program to another
Consistent styling of fonts, headings, colors, etc.
Consistent typesetting elements, such as leading, kerning, line breaks, paragraph indentations, margins and line spacing
Placement of and captions for photographs and graphics
Corresponding contents and page numbers
Juxtaposition of text and images on the same page