Proofreading requires attention and thoroughness. But knowing the rules is not enough: proofreaders have to keep in mind who the text is addressed to, which genre it belongs to, and in which countries it will be read. Most amateurs who proofread texts focus on issues related to spelling and typing errors, but proofreading covers much more.
That’s why today we want to focus on the most important proofreading mistakes and how such errors should be addressed from the point of view of professional proofreading. Let’s get started!
1 – Not Editing Before Proofreading
Getting a book ready for publication is a process with stages that are carried out successively. As such, it’s important to know that editing is not the same as proofreading, and one task precedes the other. It doesn’t make sense to proofread a text when part of it will be later replaced or deleted. Likewise, it doesn’t make sense to proofread it if it’s necessary to add sections or modify parts of it. This includes rearranging, expanding, adjusting, rewriting, adding or deleting information. Only when the text is final, can it be proofread.
For this reason, professionals follow a process. Editing before proofreading allows you to avoid wasting time jumping from one task to another, often leading to errors and inconsistencies. Likewise, it is less likely to transfer mistakes from one instance to another and end up with a book full of obscure passages. Editing before proofreading helps the final result feel clean and tidy.
2 – Not Standardizing Style Criteria
Every institution involved in the creation and dissemination of written materials has or uses a style guide. Style guides are sets of standards applied to maintaining consistency between recurring aspects in a text. For example, there’s the use of typographic formats (bold, italics, etc.), foreign words, place names, forms of treatment, and the use of abbreviations and acronyms, among many others.
Therefore, a common mistake is, precisely, not standardizing the style criteria. For example, we can’t use the Oxford comma sometimes but not others: we have to choose an option and stick to it throughout the text. To learn more about applying style rules to a text, you can check the APA guidelines.
3 – Not Considering Register and Dialect
As we said, proofreading a text is not just about correcting spelling mistakes. There are things to take into account that have to do with the adequacy of the place in which the text will be read. The first issue is register: a text that will be used in an institutional setting can’t have terms and expressions of colloquial speech. Likewise, a formal register is not adequate in a dialogue between friends.
In the case of the region, it’s necessary to choose the variety of the language common to the particular area. This is the difference between using, for example, the words candy (American English), sweets (British English), or lollies (Australian English). Not considering the register or the dialect is a common mistake that non-professionals often make in proofreading.
4 – Not Considering Homophones
Even though we said that, in this article, we wouldn’t deal with spelling mistakes, we need to talk about homophones. Homophones are words that share the same pronunciation, but have different meanings or spelling. Since English spelling is mostly based on etymology (the historical origin of words), rather than phonetics (the way they sound), this language has a lot of homophones.
Due to the frequency with which these words are used, the following homophones are some of the most problematic ones:
- Your/You’re
- Their/There/They’re
- Cell/Sell
- Whether/Weather
Not considering the correct spelling of these confusing homophones is a common proofreading mistake that should be avoided.
5 – Not Checking the Coherence and Cohesion of the Text
Finally, a common proofreading error is overlooking the consistency of the information and its relevance, and the relationship between the different blocks of information—that is, the coherence and cohesion of the text. In the first case, it’s a matter of ensuring that the overall meaning of the text and what it seeks to convey are in line, beyond grammatical and orthotypographic issues.
Cohesion, on the other hand, is the set of lexical and grammatical links and relationships that exist between the different parts of the text that tie it together and give it meaning. Cohesion errors occur when there are no clear relationships between sentences, paragraphs, or parts of a text. A clear example is when logical connectors such as instead, namely, and on the other hand are missing, as well as demonstratives such as this or that when talking about previously mentioned information. Not correcting cohesion can cause the text to feel disjointed and confusing.
Conclusion
The mistakes presented in this article are very common in non-professional proofreading, and they tend to influence the overall quality of the text. And, although they are very common mistakes, they usually go unnoticed. However, a professional proofreader can easily identify them and use standardized techniques and procedures to correct them.
If you think your text has any of these problems, get in touch with us. In Palabra, we have a team of experts ready to help you!
Translated by @florabosch
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