All proofreaders are aware of the importance of picking up spelling and grammar mistakes when proofreading or copyediting, of improving sentence structure and cohesion and generally overhauling the standard of a piece of text. Another important feature of editing services some proofreaders may not have come up against is the inclusion of tables, diagrams or design materials within a text, which can be daunting for the proofreader the first time they are encountered. Follow our simple guide for some top proofreading tips to get you started.

Proofreading tables

Tables may look complex and the first instinct when considering a proofreading job with tables may be to ignore them and simply focus on the text. However it is in fact much easier than you might think to proofread them quickly and effectively for a more complete and thorough edit.

• Check all headings and words within the table for spelling and grammar as many writers are sloppy here, feeling it is a less ‘formal’ area.

• Ensure that any underlining or capitalisation of titles of columns is consistent throughout the table.

• Check that the figures in a particular row or column add up to the correct total shown at the end of the row or bottom of the column; think of it as ‘mathematical proofreading’!

• Ensure that the table is neat and centred – many writers are not familiar with the table tool and may leave extra blank cells which need to be deleted using the table toolbar to make the table look neater and more professional.

• If the table is difficult to easily follow, consider adding alternate colours to adjacent columns to differentiate clearly between them.

Proofreading diagrams

Diagrams are often tailored specifically to the writer’s particular project so there are no hard and fast rules as you may encounter many variations. However the following top tips should help when proofreading texts including diagrams.

• Diagrams should always be spaced centrally on the page, not caught between two pages or awkwardly close to the top or bottom of the text. Ensure there is ample space around the diagram to allow it to be clearly seen without clutter.

• Regardless of the subject matter, diagrams should always be clearly labelled, whether with a code and a key or with neat, clear labels within the diagram itself. If the latter technique is applied, labels should be clearly attached to relevant parts of the diagram with straight, black lines and where necessary descriptions should be enclosed in a text box for neatness and clarity.

• Ensure that labels are uniform in the use of capitalisation and full stops as many writers will vary here.

Proofreading design materials

The trickiest category to define, design materials might consist of drawings, images, logos or plans within a proofreading job. This will often be the area least in need of alteration by the proofreader as it will be so specific to the particular text, but it is worth checking for clarity and definition, especially as many design materials do not transfer well to slides or come out clearly when printed.

Again, the proofreader or copy editor should ensure clarity, neatness and uniformity of font, capital letters and italicisation or underlining in any text or labelling included within the design material.

Attention to detail

Any editor or proofreader will tell you that attention to detail comes top of the list of important qualities to aspire to. Copyediting and proofreading services are all about picking up the tiny details a writer may have missed in their own text.

Some people think that proofreading and copyediting are all about changing glaring errors and picking up obvious mistakes, but in fact the true skill of the proofreader is their ability to notice the much smaller, subtler mistakes that most others would miss.

Proofreading services must pick up on errors like homophones, commonly misplaced words that sound the same as the word the writer meant to use but are actually spelt differently. Such errors are tricky to proofread and require great attention to detail, as they do not jump out immediately as misspelled words.

Patience

Another skill you might not automatically associate with an editor but which is in fact a key part of the master proofreader’s mentality is sheer patience.

Proofreading might seem like the quick check-through at the end of the more long and difficult process of writing, but in fact to thoroughly and comprehensively check through and edit an essay requires a great deal of patience and a slow, steady process of checking every single word and sentence one by one.

Editors providing top proofreading services will often check through a document two or three times before they are completely satisfied, requiring a great deal of patience indeed!

Consistency

Finally, for a top proofreading or essay editing job, consistency is essential. The quirks and variations of language are such that there will always be situations in which a writer has choices to make, whether in the use of a certain system of referencing, American or English spelling, the use of punctuation and so on.

An essential aspect of professional proofreading is ensuring that whatever choice is made for these variations is consistently applied throughout the text or essay, ensuring a high-class academic or professional finish.

We have compiled a list of some of the most common errors in grammar reported by proofreaders and editing services to help you perfect the accuracy and speed of your proofreading.

Sentence starters

One of the most common of all grammatical mistakes picked up by proofreading services is the incorrect use of words such as and, but and because to begin sentences.

A simple way to spot this is to remember that each of these words is a conjunction, or joining word, which should be used to join two related clauses, and therefore is not appropriate for use at the beginning of a new sentence.

Capital letters

Some of the trickiest mistakes for a proofreader to spot are those which transgress the most basic laws of grammar, as we take them so much for granted in our own writing that we do not expect to see them appear.

A major proofreading essay example is capital letters. When carrying out essay analysis, proofreaders often spot a failure to start new sentences with a capital letter, or capital letters missing from proper nouns. Editors should keep a close eye on proper nouns, such as names, places, days of the week and months, to catch this common mistake when proofreading.

Verb agreements

A very common slip often to be found when proofreading or copy editing work from somebody whose first language is not English, verb agreements are another grammar hotspot that should be at the top of a proofreading checklist.

Remember that the verb must always agree with the person who is doing it – writers often make this mistake in long or complex sentences, where the subject and verb are separated at different ends of the sentence allowing the writer to forget their association.

For a speedy check, simply remove all other parts of the sentence and check whether the simple verb phrase works on its own.

For example:

“The girl, whose long hair cascades down her back as she saunters delicately down the road in the sunshine, often take a meandering route to school.”

Simplify the sentence to the verb phrase, and the error becomes clear:

“The girl take a meandering route”

Should read:

“The girl takes”.

We hope the knowledge of these common grammatical problem areas to focus on for editors and proofreaders alike will prove useful in your toolkit for quick, accurate editing.

The job of a proofreader is carefully and meticulously to check through every word of a text, editing out any tiny mistakes in spelling, grammar and punctuation. Many people think that essay editing ends there, but in fact proofreaders are also responsible for countless other tiny adjustments of structure, style and syntax, leading to a dramatic overall improvement in quality.

Why proofread?

proofreading can seem time-consuming and frustrating but it is essential to producing a polished and perfected final document. Whether you use a professional proofreading service or decide to tackle your own copyediting, it is extremely important to make sure you catch those little errors and slips that creep into all first drafts in order for the finished product to reflect the level of professionalism and high-standards you deserve.

Academic proofreading

From weekly essays to dissertations and thesis proofreading, editing your academic work is extremely important. Often in academic essay writing, a percentage of the marks available are set aside for accurate spelling and grammar. Proofreading ensures that your essay or dissertation scores the high marks it deserves and prevents the frustration of those all-important marks being lost over silly errors that you simply hadn’t noticed. We are all prone to miss mistakes in our own work, even when checking it carefully through, so the fresh pair of eyes a proofreader provides can be invaluable.

Business proofreading

For business writing, from website text to advertising, copyediting is absolutely imperative to present a professional, competent image to customers and prospective clients. No matter what the sphere of the business, clients will always be unimpressed by grammar or spelling mistakes, and are likely to be put off by obvious slips that haven’t been picked up by proofreaders.

Why not use the spell check?

The spelling and grammar checks available on most modern computers are extremely useful, but ironically have actually led to a rise in small errors going unnoticed. As people become more reliant on technology they have tended to be less vigilant about proofreading, leading to a failure to notice the many mistakes the spell check fails to pick up on.

Common examples include the misuse of homonyms (such as there, their and they’re), which don’t register as ‘mistakes’ with the spell check, American spellings going unnoticed by software and missing punctuation marks, which are sometimes not indicated by the grammar check.

In addition, professional proofreading and editing services often include a much more subtle overhaul of the ordering of points or the essay format, a polishing touch simply not provided by the simple spell check.

So for flawless, professional text that guarantees an impressive impact, proofreading should always be a key stage in preparing any document.

Frequently confused word pairs are one of the most common mistakes you will come across when correcting English grammar. From standard essay writing right up to undergraduate dissertations and even in a masters dissertation it is not uncommon to find a student mixing up pairs such as less and fewer, practice and practise, or irritate and aggravate. Read on for a quick and simple guide to correct grammar and choosing the right word every time.

Should I use less or fewer?

There is a very easy explanation to the English grammar behind this one: you use less when you are referring to something that isn’t measured in individual units, such as sunshine, happiness, music.

For example:

It was lovely and warm yesterday, but there seems to be less sunshine today.

You use fewer when you are talking about something in the plural, so lots of individual units, such as people, sweets, cars.

For example:

It rained yesterday, so there were fewer people out playing tennis.

Less or fewer grammar top tip:

Also use less for expressions of measurement, for example:

I live less than a mile from the town

His weight dropped to less than 7 stone

Should I use practice or practise?

Again it is quite a simple rule to remember here. Practice is used whenever the word is being used as a noun (or thing).

For example:

Have you done your piano practice today? or Has netball practicebeen cancelled?

Practise is used whenever the word is being used as a verb (or doing word).

For example:

I practise my violin every day.

American and English grammar top tip:

Don’t forget spelling rules differ and where a ‘c’ is used in English grammar, the American spelling often replaces it with an ’s’, so you may find in American texts practise is actually used as a noun.

Should I use irritate or aggravate?

Once more the grammatical distinction here is much clearer than the myriad English grammar mistakes made by students might suggest! The verbs are not in fact interchangeable at all but have different meanings. As most students already know, to irritate has the meaning to annoy, provoke or inflame, but to aggravate actually means to worsen an already existing condition, not to create irritation initially at all.

For example:

My skin was irritated by the mosquito bite

The itchiness of my mosquito bite was aggravated by the woolen sweater

or

The arrival of the mob aggravated the already tense stand-off

Follow these simple rules to perfect English grammar and end the misuse of confusing word pairs in English writing assignments for good.

What is the point of proofreading?  As long as your writing is getting your message across, why be fussy with spelling, grammar and punctuation?  You are communicating so is there really any need to get the language absolutely perfect?

With all the urban slang, abbreviations and spelling mistakes that are used in email and text messages, we have all become a lot more relaxed over what we think of as acceptable written English.  There are good reasons for English to be standardized though.  Bad English can cost you grades – and even money.

Unclear English or outright mistakes in university essays or dissertations can lead to the marker giving you a lower grade than you would otherwise deserve.

• Bad English used in the workplace could lead to you producing reports that are misleading or – at their worst – perhaps libellous.  If you are working in purchasing, you  might end up ordering the wrong product entirely, too many of the product or the wrong size or colour.  All these errors could add to expense.
• Poor English usage in emails could lead to misunderstandings and even losing friends or contacts.
• Foreign learners of English will have a much harder time learning English if the rules of Standard English are abandoned.

One misunderstanding is that the copy editor doesn’t bother to look at punctuation, spelling and grammar.  This isn’t true.  The copy editor looks at all this.  The proofreader checks that the changes suggested by the copy editor have been carried out.

If you are proofreading your own text, remember:

• Put the work away for a day or so and come back to it fresh. Familiarity with the work makes us miss errors.
• Change the layout of the page.  If you are proofreading on screen, change the font size or type.  This can trick the brain into thinking you are reading a new text, so you pay attention and notice mistakes more easily.

Are you essay editing or dissertation proofreading?  Are you finding any particular challenges?  Let us know.  Post a comment below.