What Are the Functions of Proofreaders?
Many writers know how difficult it can be to find their own mistakes. That is why students and professionals often have a "second pair of eyes" look for misspelled words, punctuation errors and grammatical slips.
Other People Are Reading
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Proofreading vs. Editing
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Proofreaders are not editors. While editors focus on content and style, proofreaders study detail and look for technical problems. Proofreading occurs after editing is complete.
Responsibilities
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According to Troy University's proofreading tutorial, proofreaders focus on five aspects of writing: formatting, documentation, grammar, spelling and mechanics. Font consistency, citation format, subject-predicate agreement, comma usage and capitalization are items on a proofreader's checklist.
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Trade Secrets
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The human brain tends to overlook misspelled or missing words and other writing errors. Proofreaders learn techniques to uncover hidden mistakes, such as reading from the end of a writing piece and reading aloud line by line.
Electronic Age
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Computer word-processing programs have built-in spelling and grammar checkers that highlight mistakes for proofreaders. Find-and-replace functions allow proofers to look for common errors and correct them electronically.
Combined Methods
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The University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Technology cautions against relying on any one proofreading method. The educators direct authors to read their material several times with breaks in between, and to employ the use of outside readers.
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References
- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Barbara L. Hanson
