Proofreading is the process of changing a text with the intention to eliminate mistakes in it. Unlike editing, proofreading mostly regards rough mistakes and text’s formatting; changing stylistics, syntax, checking the credibility of facts etc. is not a part of the proofreading process.
Proofreading regards:
- typos
- spelling mistakes
- punctuation mistakes
- grammar mistakes
- eliminating excessive spaces between words (or adding them in case they were missed)
- incorrect contractions and abbreviations
- incorrect hyphenations
- incorrectly used hyphens and dashes
- incorrectly composed and|or formatted lists
- incorrectly formatted footnotes
- the overall formatting of a text (indentations, intervals between paragraphs, citations formatting, observing citation styles requirements, and so on).
What is proofreading for?
Although a text is usually checked and corrected by editors on the later stages of it being prepared to print and\or publication, proofreading is a crucial stage of this preparation as well. Proofreading provides:
- easier perception of a text by editors on the later stages of correction
- more sophisticated and quality processing of a text by editors, since they do not need to pay attention to every mistake.
It can be said that proofreading is a sort of elementary editing, which eliminates the roughest errors, technical flaws, and so on.
Proofreading