Proofreading Outside of Spelling and Grammar

When I talk to people about proofreading being a big part of my job, a lot of them think I’m mainly finding spelling mistakes, and errors in punctuation and grammar.

But there’s a lot more to proofing that goes beyond spelling and grammar. There’s also mechanics — which includes typographic style like bold vs. italics, using figures vs. spelling out numbers, whether to use the degree symbol or spell out “degrees,” and so on.

When I proofread, here’s what I look for in addition to spelling and grammar — and what your editorial team should be looking out for too.

What to Look for When Proofreading

• Font/typeface
  • Does it match the organization’s brand guidelines?
  • Is it uniform and consistent throughout?
  • Is it the right type, size and color?
  • Is the treatment (bold, italics, underline) correct?
• URLs
  • Are they spelled correctly?
  • Are they all presented consistently?
  • And importantly, do they work? I often find URLs that lead to page not found errors.
• Line and column breaks
  • Does the text flow correctly?
  • If the client does not use hyphens at the ends of lines to break up multisyllabic words, are all line-ending words unhyphenated?
• Consistency within bulleted lists
  • Is punctuation correct and consistent at the end of each bulleted item?
  • Is the list appropriate as a bulleted list, or should it be numbered (and vice versa)?
• Spacing
  • Check for extra spaces, missing spaces, correct line spacing.
  • Is there only one space after ending punctuation, including periods, question marks and exclamation marks?
• Hyphens (-) vs. en dashes (–) vs. em dashes (—)
  • Are they used correctly?
  • Is there proper spacing around them (based on the editorial style being used)?
• Image captions
  • Are images labeled correctly and consistently (i.e., if each is introduced by the word “Figure”)?
  • Ensure they follow sentence case or title case, per the client’s style.
• Images
  • Did any edges get cut off while the image was being formatted?
  • Are they stretched/out of proportion?
  • Do they look like they’re the right resolution?

I also have this in a downloadable checklist format. If you’d like a copy, I’d be happy to share it. Just send me a message!

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Check It Out: Podcast Rec

If you enjoy play on words, learning where and how phrases originated, and just language in general, check out the podcast A Way With Words. The hosts talk about coined phrases, slang terms, regional dialects and so much more. I learn something new every time I tune in!

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Something You Might Not Know About Me…

Each year I try to read (or re-read) at least one book that’s considered a classic. This year it’s been The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Surprisingly it was the first time reading both of these for me.

P.S. I don’t really know who gets to name a book as a classic.

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Discussion Questions

What’s up? I’d love to hear from you! Some things you might want to share:

• What do you look for while proofreading that I didn’t list above?
• What is the last classic you’ve read?
• Do you know how books become considered classics?

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