Proofreading Services
Anything and everything that is written should be proofread before anyone else gets to see it. There is nothing more unprofessional than sending out a document to business associates or clients that is full of grammatical and spelling errors. There is more to proofreading services than just checking for spelling and grammar mistakes, though. Some proofreading services also entail editing of a document to ensure it reads the way it is intended and is appropriate for the recipient. The demand for proofreading is increasing, with emphasis being taken away from the telephone and put onto electronic exchanges of information instead.
What Proofreading Services Include
Typographical errors are a common problem with written documents. It can be the result of poor typing skills, or typing too fast, and interestingly, the most common typographical error is the misspelling of the word ‘the’. Punctuation and quotation marks are an on-going issue with most writers, as it is commonly confusing, which punctuation mark should be used and where it should be placed. More in-depth proofreading services include sentence fragmentation, sentence length, structure, tenses and overall organisation of the text. Generally, it is the proofreader’s job to ensure that the document looks good, is error free, reads well and is appropriate for the intended audience. In some technical documents, particularly in medicine, the simple misspelling of a word could result in a word with an entirely different meaning.
Where Proofreading Services Should be Used
As mentioned before, anything that is written should be checked by a professional proofreader before publication. A novel might be proofread several times before it is ready to be printed, depending on the number of edits and rewrites that are made. For professional results, all business documentation must be proofread – a poorly written document can give an unprofessional face to the company and result in lost revenue and embarrassment. Speeches, manuals, journal articles, advertising materials, all require proofreading services as even small mistakes can be disastrous.