Proofreader

Archive for May, 2010

Four Simple Steps to Effective Editing and Proofreading

(Below is an excerpt from “My Friend Yu – The Prosperity Mentor: Book II. Release Date: November/December 2007. Pantejo – Y.N. Vurce Publishing.)

How many times have you written something, submitted or published it; then found glaring errors in grammar and/or spelling later? Or maybe upon reading your “finished” product, you feel like it doesn’t showcase your best talents.

Or even worse, you realize that it doesn’t even express your originally intended idea and is sorely missing any discernible closure!

It’s disheartening to re-read your prose and find that it resembles an unorganized jumble of unrelated sentences with no salient points to support the main idea.

What happened? You didn’t mean to take the reader on a wild goose chase. When you were writing, you were excited and happy letting the words just “flow.” Everything seemed so perfect before you submitted it for publishing.

Welcome to the world of writing by human authors.

Although there’s no substitute for experience, this article will present you with Four Simple Steps that I and many other successful writers use to effectively edit and proofread our work.

1. Cool down Period

Many novice writers try to write and edit at the same time. This is a mistake.

If you try to perform both activities at the same time, you will easily overlook errors. Why? Because the mindset and the skills needed for writing are not the same as those needed for editing and proofreading. One is creative, but the other is analytical.

Your state of being while writing (i.e., excited, sad, angry, passionate, confused, bored, etc.) is not conducive to the cold and calculated posture you must take when editing and proofreading.

Many times, in the heat of writing there is a strong temptation to write and edit simultaneously. Fight this temptation. Tell yourself that if you try this, neither your writing nor your editing will be effective.

Do yourself a favor and plan for a cool down period between writing and editing/proofreading.

The quality of your writing will reflect it.

2. The Obvious?

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but…

Use the spell check!

It’s amazing how many people overlook this initial, common sense step in editing. But the amount of spelling errors I see everyday from supposedly submission-ready work strengthens my belief that “common sense is by no means commonplace.”

Anyway, because of deadlines, laziness, arrogance, or an irrational distrust of their computer programs; many writers simply overlook this initial no-brainer editing step.

Don’t join this group. They are doomed to submitting work that is rife with misspellings, making them appear like amateurs.

With the built-in, powerful spell check function of all modern word processing programs, there’s virtually no excuse for spelling errors.

About the only exceptions to this rule that I can think of is when you need to use a foreign word; or when you’re writing fantasy/science fiction and you decide to makeup an original, “invented” word.

Again, begin all editing activity with the spell check.

Just do it.

3. Listen to Your Draft

Spell checks cannot correct grammar, syntax, context, tone, and plot.

The best way that I’ve found to check all the above is to listen to what I’ve written. You can do this by reading your work aloud, having someone else read it, or having your computer – via Text-To-Speech (TTS) – read it.

No matter how you have your work read aloud, RECORD IT for later listening. This is easily done with any speaker/microphone enabled computer, modern mobile phone, or (heaven forbid) old-fashioned tape recorder.

Compared to editing by reading, listening to your work is far more effective. Errors are more easily caught when you hear what you’ve written vice reading it.

Personally, I use TTS daily. In fact, I use it for editing, proofreading, e-mail, and books.

Listen to your work. Your editing and proofreading abilities will be taken to the next level.

The result? Higher quality writing.

4. Recheck submission requirements

While plain editing corrects spelling and grammar errors, professional proofreading is done to verify compliance with standards (e.g., submission requirements or author guidelines).

If you’re submitting your work to several organizations (as in the case of an article being submitted to many internet magazines), you must ensure that your work conforms to their standards for submission.

Since each accepting organization may have their own set of standards, submission of your work can get quite tedious.

What about article submission software? I tried it once. I’ll never do it again. Half of the magazines that the software automatically submitted to were defunct and the rest sent me back nastygrams stating that they don’t accept articles via submission software.

In the end, I would have saved a lot of time and heartache by submitting them one by one to the different magazines in the first place.

Accept this current state of affairs. Recheck your work for conformity to each accepting organization’s requirements and guidelines. If you don’t, you will quickly be notified that your submission has been rejected.

When editing or proofreading, train yourself to practice the Four Simple Steps:

1. Cool Down Period: Separate Writing time from Editing and Proofreading time.

2. Utilize the Spell Check function of your word processing program.

3. Listen to Your Work.

4. Verify that your submission meets the standards of each accepting organization.

Your editing and proofreading will instantly be more effective.

Ultimately, the quality of your writing improves and you submit work that you can be proud of.

"proofread Essay" Software © – Try it Now!

By using an advanced “Proofread Essay” Software we can easily improve our basic writing, editing, and proofreading skills. As most of us use English writing in order to communicate with each other, it is necessary that we keep improving our writing skills. Learn about the latest English proofreading ideas and how they are about to change the way you write English.

Getting some basics

Unlike conventional word processors “Proofread Essay” Software provides advanced grammar and proofreading capabilities that enable us to correct and enrich our sentences. Proofreading and fixing your English writing is quite challenging task, it requires a massive-dynamic DB, as well as sophisticated algorithms. In most cases these solutions enables us to do the following: grammar check, misspelling and typos correction, and suggesting proper punctuation.

What is in it for us?

We can easily find several important advantages while using this technology:

* Saving on proofreading and editing costs such as hiring proofreading services or professional editors.

* Helping people who use writing as their main working tool whether at home or in the office.

* Saving precious time spent on manual proofreading.

* Helping with critical writing assignments such as job and patent applications.

* Improving our basic-intermediate grammar writing skills.

There are probably many other benefits that are not covered here, as this exciting program constantly changes, bringing us new ideas and additional solutions that help us on improving our English writing.

Summary

If we summarize the main benefit provided by this powerful “Proofread Essay” Software – it is helping us on identifying possible writing errors before we deliver or publish our writing assignments. It is important to keep in mind that this technology is not 100% perfect; however, it helps us dealing with most of our common writing problems. We can only expect this webmarketing tool to further develop itself, simply because writing is one of the most important tools that help us fulfill our daily assignments.

Finding Freelance Proofreading Jobs

Freelance proofreading jobs can be done by people who will be capable of giving quick look in the work with attention to detail. A detailed eye with good vocabulary is a must. If the person has these skills and interest then proofreading job will suit him very well, and can start his career from home itself. Even minute errors change the logic of the article. So concentration is very much crucial in this category of work.

In order to get involved in or to qualify for a freelance proofreading job, the person must read more number of books or manuals to sharpen his knowledge in this field. Once he has been experienced then the proofreader will be in a position to work on this better. The freelancer can work for non profit organizations or for local charities without expecting any return to gain some good exposure in the field. They even certify on the work done and it will be helpful in the individual’s career.

Freelancers have to advertise in job portals or online websites concerned with proofreading and also distribute flyers with less money invested on it. They can even contact book publishers, graphic designers, school or colleges and many more for the proofreading jobs. Even these days’ students do offer proofreading jobs to check their thesis or project works. Mainly through internet, people will get to know the job opening and contact the concerned employer.

To be a best and effective proof reader, it is better to take a training course in it, as many companies do consider the applicants profiles if they have any certificates. So this will help in terms of job also. In order to reduce the difficulty, the people who are interested in proofreading course, but have no time to attend the classes, can opt for online training program which started to prevail a lot these days. It is essential to see that the spelling mistakes as well as grammatical mistakes are corrected properly which is the main task of the proof reader.

Some of the tips to be followed to survive in a proofreading industry are:

Qualify or educate by attending proof reading courses. Many options are available to do the course from home also.

By using the skills and talents create some sample works which will impress the client. By doing some free projects it helps to gain some experience. It also helps in building the individuals portfolio.

The person must be able to sell the work done, and then only the point of doing a freelance business can be fulfilled. It is not only necessary to create a work which will impress the clients, but also to sell them. Grasp what the employer is looking in for like quality of work, price intricacies and guarantee provided.

Don’t hesitate to take up small opportunities; even they will help in building a freelance career. Take that as a stepping stone in the career path and have those completed works as samples for future.

Allocate a good place in the house to work, as proofreading requires enough time and dedication.

It is very hard to excel as a freelance proofreading professional business. Once the place has been achieved then the freelancer will be in a position to drive the business smoothly. Hard work and dedication is essential to survive in this field. It is necessary to grab the first opportunity.