Proofreading Process – Linda Taylor: Teacher, Editor, Publishing Professional

The last person who works on the words in the manuscript is the proofreader. This is still part of the editing process, but the proofreader has little say about the manuscript itself. By the time the proofreader gets the manuscript, the designer and typesetter have done their jobs and created a PDF that will look like the final book.

The proofreader looks over the entire book visually, then reads every word, every sentence, every paragraph, and every piece of punctuation. Any corrections are marked on the PDF and sent back to the typesetter for correction.

If content editing is the 10,000-foot view, and if copyediting is the 1,000-foot view, then proofreading is the 10-foot view. At this point, the content edit has handled the big-picture issues and the copyedit has cleaned up all of the sentences. Now, as proofreader, you should be able to dig in and look closely for errors.

The proofreader’s job

The proofreader is not an editor or copyeditor. No one wants the proofreader’s input on the book’s content, or how well the sentences are written, or whether a character is flat or not. Truly, no one cares. That is not the proofreader’s job to give that kind of feedback.

While proofreaders are looking for errors only, it’s a far bigger job than just reading copy. The proofreader carefully goes over the entire visual look of a project—whether it’s the pages of a book or a magazine or a newspaper. Even if a manuscript looks perfect when turned in to typesetting, errors can occur in layout that don’t show up on a manuscript.

For example, if a random tab is embedded in the Word document—a tab that hasn’t resulted in actually moving the words to an odd location on the line (perhaps because the tab was close to a tab stop and therefore is there but not seen)—that tab will rear its ugly head on the typeset page by taking the words and spreading them far apart on a line. Only the proofreader will see this.

In the same way, sometimes Microsoft Word can bury random font sizes and, when typeset, suddenly the font size on a page will vary between paragraphs. I’ve proofed pages where I could clearly tell that one paragraph had a slightly larger font than the surrounding paragraphs. I had to mark it and ask the typesetter to double check the font size and fix it to be consistent.

If copy has to fit into a certain pre-designed space on a page (say a column in a magazine or newspaper, or a small page in a devotional book), run-over can occur, resulting in copy that just appears to be missing. A proofreader can go through and delete as needed to keep the piece intact but have it still fit. This is where having a proofreader who is a wordsmith can be very valuable. Generally, you don’t want to leave this to typesetters to do (and they don’t want to).

Proofreaders look over the pages to make sure the visual elements look right and are consistent. When I proofread a book, for example, I look at individual elements across all of the pages; that is, I don’t try to look for everything on every page at the same time. Sometimes there are too many things happening on the pages.

I have proofread several devotional books. In one series in particular, every page had a date, every month had its own color that was used for the running heads (those dates) and various parts of the copy. The first paragraph of each devotional used a drop cap (a larger capital letter, also in that’s month’s color). There were specific spacing and centering issues, and a box at the bottom held a few words of encouragement for the day.

The types of errors I found were color mistakes, too many words in a devotional resulting in the typeset page ending in the middle of a sentence (I had to go back to the original manuscript to find out what the rest of the devo said and then find a way to edit so that it would fit), some spacing issues at the ends of lines, hyphenation problems, and ellipses that broke over lines and needed to be pulled back together.

Proofreaders check the running heads—in the case of books, these are the lines across the tops of the pages. Usually on the verso (left-hand, even numbered) page, the book name appears; on the recto (right-hand, odd numbered) page is the chapter title. The proofreader checks that the chapter title running heads are indeed in the chapter with that name. I once was looking at Bible pages and the book of Deuteronomy still had the Genesis running head; another time I proofread a book where the running head on the verso page was missing a word out of the title.

Very few of the corrections will have to do with spelling or grammar errors if you had a good copyeditor; most will have to do with issues that arose in typesetting and would not be seen until proofreading those typeset pages.

The process of proofreading

When I proofread a book, I use a checklist (included below) to make sure that I remember to look at everything.

Overall look

It’s important to first do an overall look at the book, page by page. It’s impossible to try to do that while reading the pages. Better to go page by page and check visual elements first. For instance:

most books have justified right margins; scan each page that all paragraphs are consistent
if the chapter beginnings are all to start on a recto, or if they can start on either a recto or verso, that this is indeed happening
if the chapter start pages all begin in the same spot—that is, if they begin halfway down the page, that the spacing is the same on all of them
if the chapter title begins with a number or the number along with a title that the numbers are sequential and that the fonts are the same (I once proofed a book that had two chapter 8s and no chapter 9—it was just a typo)
that if the first paragraph of a chapter begins with a drop cap (a larger first letter dropped down into the paragraph) that every chapter begins with a drop cap
alignment along tops of bottoms of pages
running headers or footers are consistent
consistency across all pages and design elements

The actual reading

After all of this is completed, only then do I go back and read every word. Every word. From the title page, through the copyright page, through the Table of Contents, through the endnotes.

mark only true errors and inconsistencies
watch for widows and orphans (the single word or two sitting alone at the top or bottom of a page)
correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation
following the publisher style guide and editor style sheet
citations: footnotes or endnotes; bibliography entries

For illustration of some of the above points, check this post for when I was proofreading my book.

Becoming a proofreader

As with the copyediting job, proofreading can also be your entree into the editorial publishing world. Often these jobs are outsourced by publishers to freelancers. Much of the advice and resources for becoming a copyeditor apply to being a proofreader. You need to know grammar, punctuation, and spelling; you need to understand the style manuals, guides, and sheets; you need to practice. Here are a few more:

(1) Learn how to work with Adobe (you’ll need it on your computer so you can open the PDF files). A free version allows you to do what you need to do — see the PDF pages and highlight and note errors. With a free version, you can’t actually make the edits; you can only mark them — but seriously, leave the revisions to the typesetter who knows what she’s doing. A change you make could cause a page to reflow, creating other issues on subsequent pages. So stay in your lane and just mark the changes.

(2) Practice whenever you can — not just with reading words but also with noticing inconsistencies in visuals (fonts, colors, spacing, etc.). Offer to proofread others’ writing — blogs, resumes, cover letters, the church newsletter, anything. Just continue to hone your skills.

Here are a few online resources for practice:

(3) As noted with copyediting, don’t use AI tools like ChatGPT. Don’t ever put a PDF of someone’s work into such a program! It has to be done by you. If an experienced proofreader can come along behind you to help you see what you might have missed, that would be invaluable in your training.

(4) Hone your skills in attention to detail. Often I’ve been proofreading a manuscript and come across some inconsistency that jars me. For instance, something like a name, Billie. I’ll think to myself, “Didn’t I see it spelled as Billy somewhere else?” A quick search for Billy will show me if that’s the case; the number of instances of one or the other gives me a sense of what the author really wanted to do. And I would make a note that the name needs consistent spelling.

(5) While most proofreading is done on PDFs, once in a while you may have to proofread on actual paper. This is where you’ll need to learn proofreader marks. I’ve placed a sheet here that you can download to learn some of the most used markings.

Proofreader Marks Download

As noted with Part 2, Copyediting, proofreading can also be an entree into the publishing world.

And as a final note, whatever monk was proofing what became known as The Wicked Bible, missed the word “not”:

We proofreaders often save people a whole lot of confusion and consternation. And sometimes morality!

You guys! I’m excited to tell you that my book, Pathway to Publication, could be available as soon as next month! (Stay tuned! Cover reveal soon!)

This past weekend, I’ve been working through the PDF of the typeset pages of my book to do a final proofread. The publisher kindly is allowing me to do so (since I’ve proofread hundreds of typeset books across my career and … well … definitely wanted to do it for my own). I have a system for proofreading and was eager to see how it played out.

I thought it might be helpful to you, my readers, to understand what the process looks like in checking the final look of book pages and doing a final proofread.

I love love love doing this part of any project. It’s like a treasure hunt making sure the pages are clean and looking for those errant and persistent typos.

So here we go:

On my first pass through the manuscript, I go page by page and do a visual check in several passes. I learned through difficult experience that my brain can’t handle trying to watch for all of the visual elements while also reading every word.

So I will go through the entire manuscript probably two or three times, focusing on different visual elements.

Visual scan of pages

I look down the right side of each page to make sure all paragraphs are justified right (meaning that the edge of the copy is straight). Most books have a straight right margin. If not, and they’re what is called “ragged right,” then I want to make sure that is consistent.

At the same time, I scan to see if the pages across each spread look even on the top and bottom.

Are the paragraph indents even? (Sometimes a random extra tab gets carried over from the Word document and shows up as a double tab on typeset pages.)

Running heads (or footers)

I go horizontally across each spread looking at the running heads (or footers). I’m checking to see if the wording is correct. Often a book will have the book title on the verso (left) page of a spread and the chapter title on the recto (right) side of the spread. I have often seen that the chapter title on the running head doesn’t match the actual chapter it’s in. (I even once copyedited a book where one of the words of the book’s title was missing from the running head on each verso page.)

I also look for “widows” and “orphans.” These are a single word or short line at the top or bottom of a page, or a subhead that’s hanging alone at the bottom of a page. These look awkward and unprofessional.

Chapter starts

I then go back to the beginning and check all of the chapter starts — the first pages of each chapter. Usually designers create an interior design that makes these pages different. The chapter number or title may start halfway down the page and there may be a drop cap on the first paragraph (a larger first letter).

There may also be a design element. (Look at the cool compass on the chapter starts of my book!) I check the first pages of each chapter for consistency. Sometimes the spacing is inconsistent or the drop cap is missing. (In the case below, I would like those two highlighted words, “or an,” moved to the next line so the lines are more even.)

Formatting of elements

I pull up my manuscript — the one I so carefully style tagged. You may not have style tagged, but you do know what level headings go where, what other elements require special formatting, etc.

I scan comparing my manuscript to the typeset pages to make sure the typesetter has differentiated and correctly rendered my levels of subheads. I make sure any box text (elements such as long quotations that should be indented) are done correctly. I check the bulleted text (sometimes bullets are on copy where they shouldn’t be and vice versa). You may have other elements, such as charts, diagrams, pictures. Make sure everything is where you want it and accompanying captions are correct.

I usually print out the pages of the Table of Contents (TOC) for cross checking as it makes less back and forth in the PDF. I always make sure the chapter title in the TOC matches the chapter title at the chapter start (I think every time I’ve proofread a book, I’ve found an error here). In Pathway to Publication, the editor asked me to make a detailed outline that put all my subheads in the TOC.

In my example below, I am marking places where my Level 2 heads need to be indented slightly under the Level 1 heads in the TOC.

Page numbers will be added on our next and final pass.

Now proofread!

Now you proofread every word. Every. Single. Word. Start with the title page (in the photo above I had to add the subtitle because — ahem — I hadn’t settled on one yet, so you can see my little highlight and comment), read every word on the copyright page, read every word slowly, look at every piece of punctuation, read every footnote, read every caption. At this point I make the page larger on my screen so I don’t strain my eyes.

Besides the spelling and punctuation, notice lines that look scrunched together or where the letters look too loose. This means the “kerning” is off and you can ask the typesetter to fix it if it looks awkward.

Sometimes lines may look too close to the lines above them. This is an issue with the “leading,” and again, you can ask your typesetter to check and adjust it.

Then you need to read every bit of the back matter. That bibliography? Check the formatting and that each element is included. Appendices, glossaries, indexes, oh my! This is where those of us who also love copyediting really strut our stuff!

And here’s the kicker. I will do all this and there will still be typos. Ughhh. Perhaps I’ll do a contest and we can all treasure hunt together.

Do you have any tips and tricks for doing proofreading?

Tag: Proofreading Process

How do I become an editor? (Part 3)

The proofreader’s job

The process of proofreading

Becoming a proofreader