Proofreading involves carefully checking your written work to identify and correct any spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes. When you proofread your work, whether by using a professional proofreading service or by proofreading your document yourself, this reflects the fact that you are serious about your writing and that you take pride in what you publish.
Using proofreading services is also always an excellent idea because it gives you a competitive advantage, especially if you are submitting a book for publication, publishing a journal article, or pushing any updated business content to your website. When you use proofreading services to finalise your written work, or if you check over your work yourself effectively, you can benefit from improvements in a bunch of important areas.
Some of these benefits of careful proofreading were mentioned already in our opening sentence:
- Corrections for grammatical and typographical errors
- Comments to offer suggestions for unclear passages
- Advice on how to fix wider aspects of your writing, such as flow of paragraphs or structure
- Consistency in formatting, punctuation, and layout
With these benefits in mind, it’s worth noting at this point that the focus of each individual proofreader or proofreading company may differ. For this reason, depending on the professional proofreading service you work with, it is entirely possible that they may focus narrowly on one area and not others.
As a case in point, some freelancers or service providers only address grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, whereas other proofreaders cover this along with revisions concerning more advanced issues.
One of the clearest areas where the value of careful proofreading is visible is in academic writing. In a university setting, mark schemes often allocate marks for the quality of the language used in a manuscript. That is to say, if the quality of your written English is poor, you risk losing marks, which could affect your overall grades.
Since proofreading can have a direct effect on improving your grades at university, there is no excuse at all for avoiding it. To ensure that proofreading is done carefully and correctly if you choose to hire a professional, which will lead to a positive experience and a good outcome, it is important to consider the following criteria:
- Ensure your budget is met
- Confirm your proofreader can meet your deadline
- Check whether your proofreader’s qualifications are satisfactory (e.g., relevant experience and expertise)
- Receive a free sample to check the proofreader’s quality and communication style
Taken together, if you hire a proofreader and consider these criteria, you are very likely to receive a high-quality service, and in this way benefit from the enormous value of careful proofreading. Whether you are an academic, student, an author, or a business, the value of careful proofreading for you will be similarly enormous regardless of whether you proofread yourself or hire a professional.
Professional Proofreading Services 