Proofreading (Photo credit: lamanyana)
This post is not my usual fiction or review rather I am using this blogging space to tout my skills.
I am establishing a proofreading business.
To that end I will proofread any document of yours at no charge. Materials should be no longer than thirty-pages. I will return pages to you with corrections in Microsoft Word, tracking changes.
In exchange, subject to your satisfaction with the work, I ask that you allow me to add your name and the title of your work to my résumé. I will not plagiarise your work or share it with anyone else but may feature a sample of it in my portfolio.
Incidentally I am also considering approaching unpublished authors and offering to proofread their work.
I wonder though how you prepare your blogging posts? Leaving aside any pen/pencil and paper preparations, in respect of computers – do you type up your work in a word-processing program first such as Microsoft Word and then export it to WordPress or do you go straight into WordPress and type away using its Save Drafts feature until you are ready to hit its Publish button? (This latter approach is my own approach).
The reason for this last question is that clearly both Word Processing and Blogging software provide quite a gamut of proofreading options already and I wonder therefore what space is left for the third-party human proofreader?
Blog Rest and Play 
I use Word to draft my posts. I almost always proofread and edit before I copy and paste. Then I read them again on WordPress and do more editing. And I still find errors later.
Best of luck as you set up your business.
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Thank you.
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Check out a totally new approach to proofreading and editing at http://www.blunderhunter.com.
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An interesting approach. By way of finding out more I may sign up as an Editor with you.
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Oh Sam, this is wonderful, branching out with this idea. I know that you’re capable, for sure.
I don’t quite understand what you get out of it though. Like, if you do someone’s 30 pages & add the title of their work & maybe a para or two to your resume – where does your resume go? Like, what are you hoping to score via your resume? Just curious, not interrogating!! Just doesn’t seem you get much out of it!
Me, I type my novel into my novel, then cut & paste into wordpress, then read it aloud, I often do other things or am interrupted for up to a day but leave the computer on, only it logs out if I close the lid (a Mac), & then when it’s done in wordpress, I cut & paste back to my novel, & read it there. I do admit that with my First Class & a Screaming Baby I didn’t reread ONCE!! I was having so many distractions & ‘things going on’ I thought ‘buggar it, this is a first draft, I need to post, see what happens…’ But normally I am very certain to check it one or twice.
(this) one does not like to let it go until it feels right.
I don’t know what proof reading things you’re talking about that could take the place of a human. I don’t think spell checks are anything to rely on, & when they do perfect grammar sometimes I simply don’t like the turn of phrase & choose imperfect or, say ‘erred’ grammar. So apart from spell check, not sure what you mean – but there’s always room for another live, thinking mind to consider what you’ve written.
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Thanks for the words of encouragement Noeleen.
My résumé would go online – employment agency sites, own business website – to demonstrate experience. From the point of view of a prospective client they are not going to know or care whether I was paid for the work or not, and free work is easier to come by than paid! But this is only a time-limited offer! Over time I would be charging the market-rate..
I agree that there are limitations with proofreading software for the reasons you list. Software can make the process more efficient but the judgements to be made are as you say human and subjective.
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PS I like that you read your novel aloud. That’s something I have never done and can see the benefits of so doing.
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Hi Sam – I’m straight onto wordpress like you. When I started, I did everything in Word , then cut and paste, but found it never looked quite right. ( Maybe I was doing it wrong!) However, I’m not entirely comfy with not having my own ‘copy’, so am thinking about copying back to Word (where it doesn’t matter what it looks like.) I’m not terribly computer-literate – read ‘moron’ – and I’m concerned about losing access for whatever reason to everything I’ve written on WP.
All the best with the business!
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I know what you mean Glennie about losing access to your own WordPress posts. I also use WordPress Org and copy all my posts every few weeks to my own server.
Thanks for the best wishes.
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I do my posts in Word then cut and paste them. I don’t bother with spellcheckers, but I do generally respond to the red and green squiggly lines that Word provides. I quite often don’t notice problems until long after the post has gone up, and I re-read. As much as anything I am looking for excessively clunky sentences and grammar. Good luck with the business! It’s obvious that even major book publishers hardly bother now with proofreading, such is the pressure on costs. We are heading back to the time before mass publishing, and compulsory education, when people made up their own spellings!
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Yes, discovering spelling and grammar mistakes months and years after your post was first published…
People making up their own spelling puts me in mind of social media sites – especially Facebook (the new F Word!) – and pointing out spelling and grammar mistakes there is not advisable!
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Nice idea, Sam. If I have something, I’ll send it your way. For regular blog posts, I operate as you do. I work entirely in WordPress and rely on my own eyes. I’m sure I miss things. In fact, know that I do. Anyway, I will keep you in mind. Thanks for the offer.
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Thanks Amy.
To err is to be human – and that’s what proofreaders are counting on! I might make that my business slogan!
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That would be perfect! I like it.
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