What Are Proofreading Services For?

• Jan 21, 2023
• 5 min read

• Tags: Editing, Proofreading

Proofreading has always been taken lightly by people who see it as an extension of editing. It’s not important to proofread as much as it’s important to edit your document. That is where we would like to poke you and tell you some important facts. Proofreading is like testing a machine to do the actual work. Just as a machine needs to pass an evaluation to see whether it works efficiently, a document ABSOLUTELY needs proofreading to make it free from spelling mistakes and formatting errors and make it error-free. 

Since it is such an integral cog in the editing machine, it is best advised to give your document to a professional proofreader. We would suggest giving it to an established company instead of an individual because it’s more streamlined and efficient. Proofreading services ensure that your document is polished and ready to be published. Let’s look at what proofreading services do:

1. Ease your first-time proofreading fears.

If you are giving your book to a proofreading service for the first time, there is bound to be some intense to be or not to be happening in your head. The first thing that a proofreading service will do is explain what they will do and how they will proofread our work. The first thing that they will do is assure you that you are in good hands, if it is a top-rated service like PaperTrue and Scribbr.

2. Correct formatting errors in your manuscript/document as per industry standards.

Every research journal has a specific format in which it wants a paper to be published in. Sometimes, this is the cause for many papers being rejected even if they have a strong thesis statement. What proofreading services do is that they format your paper according to the format asked in your specific journal i.e. the margin requirements, the font size, the indents, the spacing, etc. 

3. Help you navigate tricky punctuation areas such as the oxford comma.

The oxford comma is a comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items. For example, ‘She is a mother, entrepreneur, artist and, a singer’. This comma has been the root of many debates, broken friendships, divorces… okay, not we won’t go that far. Confusing punctuation marks are always better when scanned under a professional eye which is precisely what professional proofreading services do. 

4. Verify your sources and facts stated in the document.

This is one of the most important things that a proofreading service is for. When your facts are incorrect, your content holds no value no matter how well-written it is. It is very important to verify facts and sources that you have quoted in your document so that it holds value.  

5. Correct your citation and citation format. Citation formats vary according to disciplines.

For example, MLA is often used in Humanities, I often used Chicago style in history, APA is used in psychology, etc. Mixing up of citation formats can be erroneous and can lead to your thesis or paper getting rejected. Therefore, it is important that you get hold of a proofreading service and assign them the responsibility of getting your citations in order. 

Proofreading services are important for your manuscript to get that final stamp of approval and to ensure that it is free from any spelling and formatting errors that could have been easily avoided. It is a very underrated step in the publishing process that people often think that they can do it themselves. That’s why, now that you have finished your manuscript/paper/document, give it to us while you sit back and enjoy your much needed time away from work. Check out our article on the need to proofread and which top proofreading services you can rely on to make that free time even sweeter.

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Rishi

Rishi was a zealous student at IIT Bombay when he realized, firsthand, the power of good language in effective communication. As part of this belief, after a brief stint in a hedge fund, he co-founded PaperTrue in 2014.