What’s Behind a Proofread?

What’s Behind a Proofread?

Who needs a proofread? Quite frankly all books should receive a proofread in addition to a copyedit—many books, especially those with a heavy amount of copyediting, even call for multiple proofreads.

First of all, don’t confuse a proofread with a copyedit. A proofread is essentially a reading of typeset material (or reading of the page proofs—hence the name “proofread”), in comparison to the final pretypeset manuscript, to ensure textual and formatting correctness. The number of proofreadings a project requires varies from one to seven or more (for sacred texts, for instance). If material from a previous edition of a book (tearsheet material) is scanned into an electronic file using optical character recognition (OCR) software, it typically gets an additional proofreading. A project with a large proportion of display math gets an extra proofreading too.

If the proofreader spots an apparent grammar, punctuation, or usage error in the proofs, the she or he ordinarily does not have editorial authority to mark the error directly for correction, but instead writes an editor query in the right-hand margin of the proof, indicating the manuscript page where the material is located, explaining the perceived problem, and suggesting a solution. (If the error has been corrected in the proof, but still exists in the manuscript, the editor query can be simply “EdQ: OK as set?”).

If a style sheet is supplied, the proofreader ensures that the proof agrees with the spellings, punctuation, abbreviations, and other style issues set forth on the style sheet. (The book’s copyeditor reviews the proofreader’s queries and resolves them in a manner consistent with the style guidance followed during the copyedit.)

In addition to these duties, the proofreader also checks for particular formatting errors (such as word or hyphen stacks, widows and orphans, heading style, and running head copy and style).

Don’t shortchange your book. You’ve invested heavily in writing. You’ve submitted the material to a professional copyedit. You’ve had the book typeset with a beautiful layout and crisp formatting. Do yourself a favor and take that one extra step of putting your book through a professional proofreading. It’s the frosting on the cake!

Last 5 posts by Margaret Jennings

• Why a Copy Editor Instead of a 10th-Grade English Teacher? - September 20th, 2007
• Choosing the “Perfect” Service Provider - March 4th, 2006
• The Power of a Comprehensive Editorial Evaluation - January 3rd, 2006
• Copyedit or Copy Edit? - October 11th, 2005
• Finding the Right Manuscript Editor - September 11th, 2005