What Does a Proofreader Do?

Your computer can check your spelling, punctuation, and even grammar. Depending on your word processor, you can actually set it check for a lot of potential errors. But is that enough? Let’s explore.

What is a proofreader?

A proofreader is someone who comes in at the end of the writing and publishing process to make sure everything is correct and consistent before it goes before readers. Proofreading is the very last step of the publishing process. And when I write “publishing process,” I’m not just talking about books going through a publishing house. I’m also including things like blog posts or professional documents—anything that is going to be read by someone else. We proofreaders make sure all parts of the text and format are correct, usually according to a style guide.

What is a style guide? Well, there are many different forms of style guides. There are general ones like The Chicago Manual of Style, but then there are also ones that publishing houses use for their own preferences. You could also have one for your own writing that outlines your preferences (do you use an Oxford comma?) or the proper formatting you want on your website (which header text should be used where?). A style guide is usually created by a copyeditor for the proofreader to use.

Do I need to hire a proofreader?

Depends on your intent. But here’s why it’s a good idea:

Developing a relationship with your audience

We all write for different reasons. Whether that is to inspire, escape, or teach, we all seek to connect with our audience in some way.

Mistakes are distracting. Your work has the power to impact your audience for their lifetime, so you don’t want mistakes distracting from your message. You want to build a rapport with your audience and have them trust you. (I’m certainly feeling the pressure to make this blog post error free, haha!)

Let’s look at this from a story perspective. I read a book earlier this year (which I will not name because I have no interest in shaming an author) in which there was a glaring inconsistency. The author normally had a scene break whenever the perspective changed characters, but there was one moment when the break was forgotten and I had to reread the section several times to figure out what was going on and what I missed. It took me right out of the story, and unfortunately, that’s something I’m going to remember about this book.

The computer doesn’t catch everything

The computer doesn’t have the whole picture. It doesn’t understand your story and doesn’t know your characters’ names. It can’t tell when a “we’ll get to that later” thought has been missed. It doesn’t follow a style guide outside of general ones. There are nuances and technicalities that it doesn’t know it needs to look for.

For instance, bloggers: Is a heading supposed to be heading level 2 or 3? Is it heading 5 and there’s no heading 4 ahead of it? The computer doesn’t care which one you use, yet it’s important for your SEO.

And the computer literally doesn’t catch everything.

While writing this, I wrote “doing” where I meant “going.” The computer didn’t even pick it up! It didn’t make sense in the sentence, but it was spelled correctly, so not a problem?

If you here’s, why you should. My computer thinks this is correct. *eyeroll

The computer also won’t catch story and style inconsistencies, chronology issues, or plagiarism, and AI isn’t likely to either. AI as a proofreader is another blog post waiting to happen, but I will say this: AI doesn’t understand creativity. It doesn’t have the ability to create, only to copy and piece information together to give the illusion of creativity. Preserving your distinct, creative voice is not something AI understands.

What does a proofreader do?

Funny enough, proofreaders don’t check grammar or word usage (unless something is super apparent). That’s the job of a copyeditor. Here are some obvious things a proofreader does:

• Correct spelling and punctuation according to the style guide. (Do you use US English or UK? Are you Canadian and so write in UK English with US punctuation?)

• Make sure places and character names are consistent.

• Make sure the overall document is consistent and correct.

Here are some less obvious things a proofreader does:

• Make sure numbers are written and formatted correctly. This might seem obvious; however, there are very specific rules around numbers that many of us don’t realize exist. Such as, when it’s appropriate to write out a number versus use digits, but that those rules apply differently to money or when in dialogue. Or when to use percent instead of %.

• Flag obvious errors with facts.

• Check visual components for consistency and readability.

• Make sure website links lead to where they should.

• Flag issues with formatting. Again, there are obvious formatting issues here, but there are other things like kerning (the space between two letters) that a proofreader will look for, too.

We check EVERYTHING—page numbers, headers, titles, footers, bibliography, appendices, author bio, glossary, acknowledgements, table of contents, dedications, copyright info, forewords, and covers.

Conclusion

I hope that brought some clarity as to how a proofreader can best serve you. If you are an author and writer and are looking for some help polishing up your work before you put it out there, I’d love to chat with you. My heart is to help you present yourself, and Jesus, with excellence. You can book a consultation with me or shoot me an email. Any story worth telling is worth telling with excellence.