Why should you use an external proofreading company to check your manuscript?
Whether you’re writing a CV, putting together a PowerPoint presentation or printing a corporate brochure for a new launch, you want to get your message across in the best possible way.
The last thing you want is for all your careful preparation to be remembered for the single, but glaring, spelling mistake that escaped your attention.
Even if you make a conscious effort to check your own text before delivery,a sense of weariness or over-familiarity with your work makes it all too easy for errors to be overlooked. A fresh pair of eyes will naturally be more attentive and objective.It may be that you simply don’t have the time to read back over it, in which case you can be getting on with your next project while entrusting this vital final stage to someone else.
Getting an external company to check your work will make sure that not only typos are spotted but also any grammar problems or ambiguous meanings, which is especially valuable if English isn’t your native language. A professional proofreader can help to ensure that a sparkling personality or flawlessly put-together strategy doesn’t get lost in translation as it were. You could even improve your English by taking on board any corrections made for future use!
Aside from linguistic errors, external proofreaders will also check any factual information; are you sure you meant to type 1978 or was it 1998? We all know how easy it is to type 2010 in early January 2011, from 12 months of habit, for example. What about the official English versions of well-known foreigners’ names or cities? Is it Poutine or Putin? Peking or Beijing? And have you correctly spelt and punctuated any brands quoted? Is the apostrophe there in McDonald’s? Or the accent in Nestlé?
The third aspect of your work that a professional proofreader or editor will check is format. If you’ve spent a long time reworking a text, deleting parts and editing others, you might fail to notice that the heading numbers no longer follow in order, that a page number has been omitted or that a diagram no longer corresponds to the text it is printed beside. What a shame for prospective employers or clients to change their previously positive impression of you because they lose their way on the last page.
Sending your work to an external proofreading company may prove to be your best-kept secret weapon: ensuring that your ideas and thoughts are indeed expressed in asclear, accurate, concise and consistent a manner as possible.