So You Want to Hire a Proofreader? Here’s What You Need to Know

• Jul 14, 2022
• 5 min read

• Tags: Editing and Proofreading

Bad typos are embarrassing, formatting errors in essays cost you your grades and your protagonists who have red hair in the first chapter suddenly have black hair in the next. Honestly, a lot of this is haste, and quite easily fixable. You are excited to get your content out in the world but you have to check it before doing so. This is where a proofreading service rears its stern head. Hire a proofreader and fix all your language woes! 

Proofreading is the final step in the entire editing process, and it ensures that your writing is free from grammar, punctuation, and formatting errors. After proofreading, your document is ready to go! It is necessary to give your content that final touch before it is a finished product. We have 4 major areas of content in which proofreading is crucial to ensure that it is free from errors. If your content falls into any of these, hire a proofreader to give it a final review. 

What documents do proofreaders work on? 

1. Academic documents

Academic documents comprise term papers, research papers, dissertations, and essays. If you have sent in an essay with a huge typo that felt like the end of the world, you know what I am talking about. Proofreading is essential in academic documents because it

• Omits repeated phrases and words: When the word limit is 3000 words, you try to stretch it as thinly as possible. While this may work for you, it does not work for your essay, leaving it a blubbering pile of mess. A proofreading service offers a solution in the form of refining your sentences and deleting those heavy words like “therefore” in every single sentence that you have typed. 
• Gives you your own personal “Eureka!” moment: It is not possible to squeeze out every single bit of perspective to your academic writing in one sitting. Try as much as you can, some bits completely escape your brain. Proofreading your essay a couple of times jogs your memory and all the things that you missed light up like a thousand light bulbs. 
• Checks formatting errors: Why is one subheading font size 12 but the subsequent one is a size 14? Those paragraphs that you typed in one long, brilliantly creative stroke now seem too long to read. All those sources that you have cited are all jumbled up and you don’t know who is the author and what the book is about. But that’s where a proofreader can help you out. They align your documents, segregate your writing into smaller paragraphs, even out the font size, and cite your sources according to whatever format you’ve been prescribed.  

 2. Business documents 

Business documents are at the top of the list for proofreading. There are confidential emails, intricate legal documents, and important client pitches that need to be refined and checked before they are dispatched. A proofreading service will help you achieve

• Error-free language: Typos are embarrassing. And when you make them in an email that will go to your boss, it may shut the door on your face. A similar thing might happen in an important presentation that you are making in front of an important client and it says “Introsuction” instead of “Introduction”. You will most definitely want the earth to swallow you whole. 
• To-the-point communication: Business is all about being direct and diplomatic. If your clients or fellow partners do not understand what you’re trying to spin, it will pretty much backfire. Proofreading ensures that you cut out the going-around-in-circles drama and present your points clearly. It cuts out flamboyant words, unnecessary jargon, and repetitive sentences so that your pitch is an immediate success!
• Refined tone and style: Business documents need to be devoid of any words that might make them seem emotional. If your email sounds like you want to extend the hand of brotherhood to another company, it’s probably time to proofread it. Proofreading helps you spot any trace of “dear”, “amazing”, or in some extreme cases, ‘lit!’ (yes, with an exclamation mark) and delete it furiously. 

 3. Online content 

Ah, the place where everything stays forever. Online content is our endless pit of information and the source of endless laughs. Be very, very, very careful about what you post online because it might end up being one of the worst mistakes of your life. 

• Checks your typos and spelling mistakes. On the web, millions of people view your content. While this is a good thing in terms of visibility and growth, it can prove terrible if it’s troll-worthy. Proofreading online content for typos and spelling mistakes can save you from years worth of embarrassment. 
• Keywords and SEO. After you proofread your website or your online articles, it is more likely that you include trending keywords that make your content easily visible and widely accessible. Proofreading your website also includes correcting your hyperlinks, checking whether there are any broken hyperlinks or so, etc.  
• Maintain a consistent style and voice. If your website has a lot of content from multiple bloggers and writers, a professional proofreading service will ensure that the voice of your website remains consistent. 
• Save time and embarrassment. It’s always better to give time to proofread your website for spelling errors, punctuation mistakes than to have your readers point them out to you.

4. Books (Fiction and Nonfiction) 

Proofreaders also often work on full-length books. Unlike editing, the steps of proofreading remain fairly standard regardless of the genre of your book. In fact, in the traditional publishing context, proofreading is one of the last steps of the entire manuscript. 

• Correct grammar and punctuation errors, and typos. When you hold a piece of work dear to your heart, you don’t see minute errors in your copy, which a professional proofreading service might. Even if proofreading is the last step in the entire editing process, it is vital for the book to become a properly finished copy.
• Formatting your book. Proofreading is the final step in the editing process which checks whether the formatting of your book is even and consistent. People mistake the two to be the same thing. But there’s a clear distinction. Those are two different services, with a different set of skills required, and they are also priced differently.

Another common misconception is that online proofreading services only serve authors and students. That’s just the major clientele. Here at PaperTrue, we’ve processed documents for clients from various walks of life, like editing resumes and CVs for job seekers, formatting film scripts, proofreading text for comics, processing business documents, and more. You can hire a proofreader no matter what document you’re working on. 

If it’s written word you got, online proofreading services will surely help you make it better.

10 Things to Look for Before You Hire a Proofreader 

There are tens and hundreds of proofreading services out there. Not to mention the thousands of freelancers whose services you may consider availing. Here are the 10 things you should look for while you do research to hire a proofreader. 

1. Experience and qualification 

While hiring an employee, you look at their resume to assess their experience and qualifications in order to choose the best.

Similarly, when you hire an online proofreader or such a service, it’s essential to know what your proofreader can do for you. Does the proofreader have a good command of the English language? Is the proofreader well-versed with digital proofreading and the various formats? Do they have any formal training?

There are various questions to be asked, and you need to make sure you’re asking the right ones.

2. Excellent customer support: 

Online proofreading services have solid client support. The round-the-clock support they provide is a must because users often have doubts about the pricing, the level of service, and the turnaround time before they opt-in to go ahead. In case, they’re not satisfied with how the document has turned out, they come back for a round of revision, with the particular requests for what they want changed. 

3. Comprehensive service offerings 

Proofreading is essentially a very streamlined process and involves the correction of grammar, spelling, punctuation, style, etc. It is the clinical correction and polishing of your document and typically takes place at the very end.

It’s possible for you to get unwittingly misled since editing and proofreading often tend to cross paths. It is important to note the difference between editing and proofreading and be very sure of the type of service you’re expecting.

4. Affordable pricing 

This one is on top of the list, especially for students and first-time authors. Editing and proofreading is an extensive activity, requiring meticulous work and a considerable amount of time. But some services charge exorbitant rates for 1000 words and that puts people off. Many people cannot publish their work, however good it is, just because of the price. Academic documents like dissertations, essays and papers lose marks because of formatting errors, something that could have been easily fixed by proofreading. 

Hire a proofreader who offers affordable pricing per thousand words. A few proofreading services offer discounts around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Halloween, going up to 30%, which can mean the world for forever broke college students. 

5. A reasonable turnaround time

Some websites have reviews by disappointed clients, many of them stating that the document did not turn up on the day that it was scheduled. Lazy turnaround time pushes away clients even if the work is good and up to the mark. 

6. A respectful author-editor relationship 

There is no greater joy than clicking with your editor. This is true, especially when you hand months and months of hard work to them. A good professional proofreading service will have people that go above and beyond what we require and assist you in fine-tuning your book or document. Apart from this, it is also your responsibility to cooperate with them and keep things up to the mark on your end. 

7. A portfolio or work samples 

How will you trust a proofreading service if you don’t know what kind of work it does? It is ideal to look up editing and proofreading samples on their website and go through them. Check whether they have a variety of documents; ranging from academic to fiction. Through their editing samples, you will be better able to understand the editing style and whether that suits your sensibilities.

8. Good reviews and testimonials 

The best place to check the credibility of a service is its review page. Companies often ask clients to review their service if they liked it. Dissatisfied clients take to reviews to nudge people away from the service and make them aware of its shortcomings. A good proofreading service will have the maximum number of good reviews. Look for reviews that highlight all the aspects of their service (turnaround time, price, constant communication and follow-ups, editing samples, etc.)

9. User-friendly website 

If the website takes an eternity to load, you will be frustrated and eventually throw your phone or laptop. Don’t do that. Instead, check other websites. One might load fast, but don’t stop at that. Check how accessible the information is. If you can’t find basic information like the pricing or their services, then immediately move to another website. The website of a proofreading service says everything about its functionality. Therefore, it is a must that it is smoothly functioning. 

10. A guarantee of confidentiality 

If you’ve never availed of the services of an online proofreading service before, we understand that you might be worried about how confidentiality is guaranteed. Whether you’re a student about to submit a dissertation, a writer sending in their manuscript, or someone sending in a sensitive legal document, you can be assured that these professional firms have had ample experience securing the safety of your document. 

Most websites, on the onset, guarantee the confidentiality of the documents and other information you’re sharing with them. But before you hire a proofreader, you must be absolutely certain of the exact terms of confidentiality they guarantee. The best way to do this is to look for a confidentiality clause in the contract you sign with them. 

You should ideally be looking for all of these 10 qualities in the proofreader of your choice. Are you looking to hire a proofreader? Here are some options you may want to consider.

Keep reading with more resources from your loyal editors and proofreaders:

• The Pros and Cons of Hiring Freelancers
• How to Start your Online Publishing Company

Found this article helpful?

0

0

Rishi

Rishi was a zealous student at IIT Bombay when he realized, firsthand, the power of good language in effective communication. As part of this belief, after a brief stint in a hedge fund, he co-founded PaperTrue in 2014.

Leave a Comment: Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Comment *

Name

Email

Δ