Jennifer Karchmer - A Proofreading Companion: Tips, Tools & Strategies for the Professional Proofreader

To Mom

My first proofreader

To Dad

My biggest fan

Jennifer Karchmer is a proofreader, editor, and writing coach. With a focus on non-fiction writing, she manages Over The Shoulder Editorial, a freelance business helping writers of memoir, self-help, how-to, and other true stories improve their craft.

With more than 25 years as a journalist at CNN, the AP, McClatchy and Gannett among other mainstream media outlets, Jennifer has won newswriting awards for her reporting on freedom of the press in Iceland.

She holds a bachelors degree in broadcast journalism and a masters degree in communications. Read more at: www.jenniferkarchmer.com/overtheshoulder

My mother was a voracious reader, zipping through Tom Clancy, Patricia Cornwell and other bestselling authors she bought at the grocery store. In just a few days, she would close the final page of the paperback, ready for a new one. I admired her passion for reading, and on most days I was slumped in a chair, my nose in a kids book like Ramona the Brave, or a Judy Blume teen classic, like Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret.

When Mom died in 2000, I was sifting through a box of books and realized that she had read with a pencil in her handher precise handwriting adorned the margins of dog-eared pages. She had marked up typos in almost every book, correcting misspellings, inserting missing commas and fixing errant capitalization. In one, her finely shaped circles enclosed orphansthe typesetter term for the first line of a paragraph that gets left all alone at the bottom of the pageanother proofreaders delight. Mom was a publishers dream, or nightmare, depending on where one stood in the editorial process.

Im proud to report that I inherited my mothers finely-tuned eye for errors on the page. I cant seem to get enough text in my lifereading street signs, junk mail, billboards and even the fine print. I get pleasure from correcting grammar and finding typos, a pastime that I have turned into a freelance business.

Thanks, Mom.

I consider proofreading the Wheres Waldo? of text. You know the bespectacled cartoon with the red and white striped sweater and knit hat youre supposed to find at the amusement park or on the ski slope? You have to have a keen eye and patience to locate the little guy, but hes there.

Similarly, I consider proofreading like a puzzle. Searching for and finding mistakes is fun, especially when you are attuned to the tiniest of details, have a deep understanding of the parts of speech, enjoy punctuation rules and conjugating verbs. Misspellings are my favorite; they hark back to my eighth grade spelling bee where I beat out hundreds of my classmates to make it to the semifinals. Unfortunately I goofed an ironic word and got kicked out with just a handful of kids to go, but Ive always considered myself a darn good speller. (Can you guess the word I misspelled? Theres a hint in there.)

Proofreading is much more than running spellcheck and finding a typo here and there. Professionals for hire are responsible for using a fine-tooth comb to sweep paragraphs, formatting and images to be sure theyre clean and polished.

There is no one definition we can point to when it comes to proofreading. Writers and editors alike seem to have varying definitions of what constitutes proofreading, which is why its so important to put in writing (or get in writing) what the proofreading services look like. Does it include fact checking dates, inspecting page numbers, or looking for formatting issues like widows or bad breaks?

Above all, we freelancers agree that proofreading is as important as, if not more important than, other editorial phases including writing, drafting, substantive editing, developmental editing, copy editing and line editing. Proofreaders are expected to be consistently accurate by default because they occupy the last stage of typographic production before publication, according to an entry in Wikipedia.

Regrettably, proofreading is often overlooked, executed in a hurry or skipped altogether. Gaffes that show up in the final product either raise eyebrows or garner chuckles (i.e., thong for thing or pubic for public). But errors and flat-out mistakes make published materials look sloppy and unprofessional, and can even be libelous, especially when it comes to law, finance or healthcare.

One of my favorite typos occurred in 2015 at the intersection of law and nature. Some folks in Washington state wanted to shut down part of a hiking trail due to lack of funding. But a wording error in the legislation that inanely referred to the closed section as, from the Columbia River to the Columbia River, nullified the amendment temporarily, effectively killing the idea and the lawmakers credibility. (In case you were wondering, the wording should have been, from the Columbia River to Malden, Wash. It most likely was an errant copy/paste issue.)

If youre a freelancer, this book will teach you how to beef up your proofreading services, persuade clients to take proofreading seriously, and how to proofread more efficiently and effectively. Youre running a business so tips, tools and resources are a great investment.

Perhaps youre an author, a fiction or short story writer, a memoirist, or the head of a non-profit, or corporation, then this book is for you too. You will learn ways to self-edit and improve your writing so when you do hand off your project to a professional, youre saving money. Ultimately your goal is to put out the best possible copy, free of typos and mistakes.

We all know that proofreading often gets the short shrift. Its a step delegated to the English major in the room or Aunt June whos good with words. In a pinch, sending a document around the office may catch some typos, but hiring a professional is the best advice.

Even the best writers out there cannot serve as their own best proofreader. We become too intimate with the text and glaze over errors, missing mistakes that others detect. A professional, experienced proofreader is the person to rely on to see nitty-gritty details with magnifying-glass precision. This book attempts to identify some strategies and methods to providing the highest quality proofreading.

I magine a piece of clay that you shape into a bowl or coffee mug. There are many phases to get to the end product. These include conception, designing, sketching, execution, refining, polishing, and so on. You wouldnt etch the flower pattern detail on the mug until youve got the foundation settled.

So too in writing, you wouldnt sift through correcting tiny details when youre still in the developmental phase. There are just too many steps, some of which overlap like proofreading and copy editing. The order of events may also get skewed when the writer throws up her hands in despair (or agony) and says, Back to the drawing board.