Proofreading is the quality check and tidy-up before a document is ready for public consumption.  A proofreader looks for consistency in usage and presentation and accuracy in text, images and layout, but isn’t necessarily responsible for the content, unless of course they are one and the same. 

Accurately proofing your own work can be extremely challenging; it’s actually twice as hard to detect mistakes in your own work as in someone else’s!  Most errors in written work are made unconsciously.

It’s the unconscious nature of the work that makes proofreading so difficult. Your brain has a habit of filling in information that you haven’t actually absorbed visually; if you’re certain that you’ve written something, that’s what you’ll “see” when you proofread.

However before you get disheartened, it might help to know that professional editors proofread as many as ten times.  Publishing houses hire teams of readers to work in pairs, out loud and still errors occur. 

The workshop will help you to understanding what proofreading is and what it entails, check work with ease and understand some of the common pitfalls.  You’ll also learn to develop a more positive approach, become skilled in the techniques employed for successful proofreading, including the use of British Standard proofreading marks.

Duration – 1 day

Course Content

• Why is proofreading important?
• The techniques of proofreading
• Identifying common errors
• Grammar, spelling & punctuation
• BS proofreading marks
• Professionally marking up a document
• Practice sessions
• Action planning

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