I recently passed the standard proofreading training, ‘Basic Proofreading’, with the Publishing Training Centre. Training as a proofreader goes beyond getting better at spotting mistakes; beyond knowing what is and isn’t a mistake. Here are some simple lessons anyone can apply to whatever they are writing:
Consistency
Sometimes consistency matters more than right and wrong. If a writer has used commas, or punctuated speech, in a quirky but consistent way throughout a long script, then it is probably deliberate. A long as it doesn’t make the document harder to read or understand, the best option is often to leave it as it was written.
But consistency also requires that if something has different possible spellings – like summersault and somersault – then even if they are used 200 pages apart, they need to be spelled the same every time.
Spacing
Is that a double space below your paragraph? Or is it a single space in a larger font? If you just let your computer decide things like that, it might not decide the same thing each time, because the way you format your document may give subtly different instructions about the formatting of blank space – yes, blank space is formatted! That means that unless you make your spacing consistent, you might end up with paragraphs, graphics or headings just arranged as the last formatting instruction puts them, rather than in pleasing proportions which you decide on and which are consistent throughout the document.
Hyphens
Early in the 2017-2018 season, high–energy midfielder Alex Oxlade–Chamberlain – who had been an England under–21 international before making his full international debut in a 1-0 win over Norway – moved from Arsenal to their top–flight rivals Liverpool, taking their summer spending to £130-£140 million. Twelve months ago I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid at that sentence; I now realise that not only are there three kinds of hyphen in it, but that all nine ‘hyphens’ are wrong. When you type a hyphen, your computer will usually decide what kind you want and adjust it slightly. But it won’t always know, so you need to be able to check and change it if necessary.
Good enough
As if to contradict the painstaking attention I claim to offer, there are things that can be left alone as ‘good enough’. Commas follow rules up to a point, but sometimes their use is down to personal preference. Even the benefits of ‘consistency’ can be trumped by the time and cost implications of changing something minor; or by a sentence ‘sounding’ fine when read aloud, even if it breaks a rule you’ve stuck to elsewhere.
Accuracy Works 