Developing an eye for detail is critical if you want to find success as a freelance proofreader.
Now, if you have an interest in proofreading, it’s likely that you already easily spot a lot of mistakes and errors in writing. This is a great foundation to have, but to take it to the next level and become a top-tier proofreader requires dedication and effort. In other words, we don’t want to just spot common mistakes—we want to find all of them.
The good news is that attention to detail is a skill, just like anything else. And just like any other skill, it can be learned. Here are four ways you can improve your attention to detail as a proofreader.
Practice, practice, practice
The best way to develop your eye for detail as a proofreader is to practice!
Practicing proofreading can come in many forms. For example, you might choose to offer some pro bono work to friends and family. Not only will this help you develop your proofreading chops in a low-stakes environment, but it will also help you develop your portfolio.
You can also sign up to become a volunteer proofreader at Project Gutenberg. If you aren’t aware, Project Gutenberg is an organization whose goal is to digitize old books that are past their copyright dates. They use optical character recognition to scan physical books into digital copies, but neither the text nor the printed page is perfect. That means they need volunteers to find and fix mistakes.
You can sign up to volunteer at Distributed Proofreaders. The job really does hone your eye for detail, and you’ll be helping to preserve knowledge for future generations. It’s a win-win!
If you want to start with something even simpler, my advice is to proofread everything you see. If you are eating cereal in the morning, read over the entire box looking for errors. See how many “15 items or less” signs you can find at the grocery store—which should of course read “15 items or fewer.” Every book or article you read will almost undoubtedly have at least one or two errors, guaranteed—so find them.
There are so many ways to practice proofreading if you are willing to think outside of the box. Thankfully, how you do it is not as important as that you do it.
Dive into a copy of CMOS
As a proofreader, the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) should be your best friend.
This reference book, which is also available as an online subscription, contains the answer to virtually any grammatical question you could ever have regarding the English language. Most consider it the bible of written English.
It is well worth your time to become familiar with this invaluable resource. Read about how to properly format lists. Study the section on hyphenation. Learn the proper way to write numbers.
So how does this help with attention to detail, you might ask? When you dig into CMOS, you are getting into the minutiae of language. You are learning the difference between an en-dash (–) and an em-dash (—). You start to understand which words should be capitalized in a heading and why. Studying the smallest parts of grammar and style helps you then spot mistakes in the wild.
This means, of course, that studying CMOS needs to be combined with actual proofreading for the greatest amount of learning to take place, which coincidentally takes us to the next strategy to build your attention to detail.
If you have a question, research it
One of the basic tenets of proofreading is “if you aren’t 100 percent sure of the answer, look it up.” This is true whether you’re brand new or highly experienced. But as a new freelancer, it also helps your eye for detail.
For instance, say you come across the phrase “the user must sign a non-disclosure agreement.” You notice the hyphen but can’t quite remember if it should be there. A quick check of Merriam-Webster tells you that “nondisclosure” is the correct spelling, and so you make the change.
This event on its own may or may not help you identify “non-disclosure” as an error in the future, but if you make a habit of looking up and verifying anything you have a question about, you will start to see even the smallest of issues better and more quickly.
Develop a proofreading checklist
One way to help develop this habit and others is to create a proofreading checklist for yourself.
This can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it, but the basic idea is to write down the list of steps that you always take when proofreading anything.
My own list includes things such as:
- Searching for double or extra spaces
- Making a “headlines only” pass
- Googling all names to verify spelling
- Ensuring all acronyms are defined on first use
The benefit of a checklist is it helps ensure you don’t ever miss anything when proofreading. And much like the above point, habitual checklist usage will drill into your brain to be on the lookout for even the smallest details such as an extra space.
Next Steps
There are, of course, many more ways to develop your eye for detail as a proofreader. But these are the four I find myself using most frequently—because they work. So which of the above can you implement? I’d encourage you to start today.
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