How to Use Proofreaders Marks

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By Peggy Hazelwood
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Capitalize the letter 't' and add a space using proofreaders marks.

When you need to mark up a document, use proofreaders marks. The practice of proofreading and editing on hard copy is done less and less these days, but if you need to edit your own or someone else's writing, using standard proofreaders marks lets you easily communicate the changes in a standard fashion.

It's always a good idea to let someone else read your work. They will more than likely catch mistakes your eyes miss. Proofreaders marks are commonly used in the publishing and business worlds, so there should be little to no confusion about your requested changes.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

red pen or pencil
document to be proofread
list of proofreaders marks

Step 1

Use a red pen when proofreading.

Gather a red pen or sharpened red pencil. The color red shows up the best on white paper and will communicate to the writer or word processor what changes you want to be made.
Step 2

Get a list of proofreaders marks to refer to. The Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has an excellent list of proofreaders' marks. Study them and keep a copy handy to refer to as you proof read.
Step 3

Get the document to be proofread or edited. Take a cursory look at it, noticing how it is separated into chapters or sections. See if there are quotations used. Get a feel for the document you'll be proofreading.
Step 4

Make the 'I' lowercase.

Begin proofreading. Pay attention for missing words. Use a caret (an inverted V) to indicate where something needs to added. Things to be added can be an entire word, a comma, a space, and so on. A V-shaped caret is used to insert quote marks.
Step 5

Close up the space in 'proofreaders.'

Use the proofreaders marks shaped like half circles to close up a space. This can be used in the middle of a word. This proofreaders' mark indicates the word should be set (typed) as one word.
Step 6

Remove the extra 't' in 'editing.'

Use a delete mark to indicate a letter or word to be deleted or taken out. Familiarize yourself with the other proofreaders marks and keep a list handy to refer to when you are proofreading or editing.
Step 7

For additions, add a caret where the added words go and write the words in the margin. Draw a line to the caret to indicate where they are to be inserted.
Step 8

Keep writing in manageable chunks. Add a paragraph symbol (a backwards P with two lines) to indicate where to start a new paragraph.

Comments

veryirie said

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on 7/7/2009 This is useful info and weirdly or not it looks like "fun". I always loved shorthand so maybe this is something easy enough to catch onto. Interesting!

sanderdoe said

on 7/3/2009 I've saved this to my favorites. I've always wanted to know exactly how to use proofreaders marks. 5*

Gottaloveit said

on 7/1/2009 I still am old school enough to print stuff out and use proofreader's marks to do corrections. Good thing I don't use white out on the computer screen!