“In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made proof-readers.” Although a bit harsh, these words from Mark Twain are rather correct. Many writers tend to fall into the practice of writing what they have in mind first, before checking what they wrote. There are instances when there is no need to correct anything, a few perhaps, and there are many instances when there are many mistakes in the article. This is where learning how to proofread becomes a necessity. Yes, it is a necessity.
Why You Really Need To Learn How To Proofread
There are many proofreading businesses out there – those who sell proofreading software, those B2B businesses who offer proofreading services. You can even find those looking for freelance proofreading jobs on Craigslist. If you are a writer, you’ll find that hiring professional proofreaders can save you a lot of time – although you can also resort to buying contents, which saves you tons of time, allowing you to do more of what you are good at.
But even if you would hire or buy proofreaders, you still need to learn how to proofread and do some proofreading by yourself. Here’s why:
- If you use software to proofread, you will notice that it does not produce 100% correct results most of the time. It works great at times, yes, but any error that goes unchecked will reflect on you, not on the software. You can’t excuse yourself from any published mistakes. Also, software proofreaders can’t really replace human proofreaders, especially on the rhetoric part.
- Freelance proofreaders are humans, like yourself, who can commit mistakes. They use software and their skills to proof read your copy. However, you can’t go after them if they send you erroneous copies because they are freelancers only. They may be cheaper than proofreading businesses, but as they say, you get what you pay for. This is not to say they are not good at all, this is a warning that some of these freelance proofreaders can’t produce professional-quality proofs.
- Doing some proofreading yourself means you will have to go through your articles once or twice more. This allows you to adjust your choice of words, correct minor mistakes, or even change the train of thought, among others. There are books, courses, and online resources on learning how to proofread out there.
- B2B businesses provide the best results among these options. iPresence Business Solutions can be one of the best options you can have. The thing here is that you’ll have to pay, yes, pay, but you will get not only for error-free copies, but guaranteed professionalism, as well. That means peace of mind. Because many of these services are published and well-known, you can go after them if they give you erroneous copies. You can also feel confident that your copy will not be claimed by someone else before you publish it.
Wrapping Up
As writers, we all need to check our articles. Like what we mentioned above, any unchecked error reflects on you. People will most likely remember your mistakes. Learning how to proofread gives you many advantages than totally relying on proofreading services and software.
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