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Editing Guidelines

What Is Proofreading?

Proofreading is different from editing. So, what makes it unique? Find out about what proofreading is and its importance, so you can create clear and polished content. Plus, learn what it takes to become a great proofreader.

Trusted By Industry Leaders
Trusted By Industry Leaders

Finishing an article is satisfying. After all, you may have spent hours perfecting it. You think you’re ready to turn it into your client. But hold on, you may be missing an essential step that could make or break the article.

It’s time to polish your article with a heavy dose of proofreading. Sound proofreading will establish you as a serious writer or editor. 

Let’s face it, if you have multiple grammatical errors and misspelled words, that can disengage the reader, and they’ll ignore the content (which can have negative impacts like increasing bounce rates). 

The key takeaway? You need to know and implement proofreading.

In This Article:

  • Proofreading is the final review that polishes a rough draft
  • Editing vs. proofreading
  • What proofreaders correct
  • Why is proofreading important?
  • Proofreading tips to find errors
  • Skills needed to proofread and become a proofreading pro 

Ensure proofreading goes smoothly by using editorial tools like the Originality.ai Grammar Checker and Readability Checker.

Proofreading Polishes Your Article

With the rise of digital writing and content writing, proofreading has expanded beyond print media.

In content marketing, it has become the act of reviewing and fixing errors like grammar and misspelled words that may appear in the final draft of blog posts, landing pages, and even social media posts. 

Proofreading is the final review and ultimately polishes your draft.

Proofreading vs. Editing

Proofreading is part of the editing process, but it is different from editing. 

An editor reviews the draft (and editing takes place) before the proofreader begins proofreading. 

Editors first focus on aspects which are essential to preparing the draft (such as substance and style) before the final proofreading stage of the editorial process.

Let’s take a closer look at the tasks of an editor vs. a proofreader:

  • An editor may make sure ideas and arguments are effective
  • Then, an editor may also rewrite sentences or sections to ensure the article flows cohesively.
  • In contrast, proofreaders are primarily concerned with the article’s technical aspects, like spelling and grammar.

Keep in mind that sometimes editors may also proofread content (after editing) and tackle both aspects of the editorial process as separate steps before publication.

What Do Proofreaders Correct

Although fixing errors is the main proofreader’s job, the final review goes much deeper. 

Of course, you want to correct the basic grammar and spelling mistakes, but other problems need to be caught before you can submit. 

Proofreaders look for and correct

  1. Poor sentence structure (sentence fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices)
  2. Inconsistent brand and voice
  3. Misused words and phrases (using the wrong word can change meaning)
  4. Incorrect verb tenses (these may confuse the reader)
  5. Formatting (are headlines, subheads, lists, etc. used correctly?)

Proofreaders are the last step to ensure the final product is professional and easy to read. So, they are highly focused on looking at and addressing the details of the content. 

Why Is Proofreading Important?

There are several reasons why proofreading is essential. It goes beyond making sure your content is error-free. It ensures the clarity of your brand message and can clear up misunderstandings within the content — before it’s published.

Proofreading ensures accuracy, eliminates errors, and enhances readability. If the message is not clear or consistent, it could cause confusion for the reader. 

Proofreading maintains both the writer’s and the client’s professionalism by catching mistakes that may have slipped through the cracks before the content is published.

Correct grammar, spelling, and verb tenses all contribute to a positive image for the client or business and reassure the reader or audience.

Proofreading Tips to Help Find Errors

It’s important to know various ways to improve your proofreading skills. 

Here are some tips to make proofreading easier:

  • Step away from work. It’s easy for your brain to fill in missing items or other mistakes. Don’t wait until your eyes glaze over. Walk away and come back fresh. 
  • Read the text out loud. This helps spot awkward or abrupt sentences.
  • Print out the document. Get away from the computer screen. You’ll find errors that fell through the cracks.
  • Use a grammar checker to catch any mistakes you miss.

You can try one of these or all of these to make the process easier. 

Whatever you can do to keep fresh eyes and gain perspective on a draft will help you become a more effective proofreader.

Skills and Qualities Proofreaders Need

Proofreaders must possess specific skills and qualities to do their job effectively. From sentences to specific words and commas, a good proofreader must be able to analyze every detail on the page. As a proofreader, you must be a perfectionist.

It’s imperative that proofreaders have a perfect understanding of the language. They must not only know grammar rules but also have a crystal clear understanding of the flow. 

They should also know common style guides and their specific brand’s style guidelines to ensure that the content is in line with the brand voice.

Not to mention that proofreaders must have excellent communication skills. They should be able to explain clearly why something is or isn’t working.

Final Thoughts

Proofreading is one of the cornerstones of good writing. A proofreader is the last set of eyes to review a draft. 

Proofreaders ensure that grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation are correct to ultimately ensure a great experience for the reader.

Get a suite of best-in-class editorial tools to streamline your editing process with the Originality.ai Grammar Checker, Readability Checker, and Content Optimizer.

Then, learn more about the editorial process in our top guides:

Anne Johnson

Anne Johnson is an editor, writer, and business owner who has spent over 20 years helping clients reach their digital content and SEO goals. She believes in helpful and relevant content that puts the user’s needs first. This leads to higher conversions for the client.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to fill out the entire form?

No, that’s one of the benefits, only fill out the areas which you think will be relevant to the prompts you require.

Why is the English so poor for some prompts?

When making the tool we had to make each prompt as general as possible to be able to include every kind of input. Not to worry though ChatGPT is smart and will still understand the prompt.

In The Press

Originality.ai has been featured for its accurate ability to detect GPT-3, Chat GPT and GPT-4 generated content. See some of the coverage below…

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Featured by Leading Publications

Originality.ai did a fantastic job on all three prompts, precisely detecting them as AI-written. Additionally, after I checked with actual human-written textual content, it did determine it as 100% human-generated, which is important.

Vahan Petrosyan

searchenginejournal.com

I use this tool most frequently to check for AI content personally. My most frequent use-case is checking content submitted by freelance writers we work with for AI and plagiarism.

Tom Demers

searchengineland.com

After extensive research and testing, we determined Originality.ai to be the most accurate technology.

Rock Content Team

rockcontent.com

Jon Gillham, Founder of Originality.ai came up with a tool to detect whether the content is written by humans or AI tools. It’s built on such technology that can specifically detect content by ChatGPT-3 — by giving you a spam score of 0-100, with an accuracy of 94%.

Felix Rose-Collins

ranktracker.com

ChatGPT lacks empathy and originality. It’s also recognized as AI-generated content most of the time by plagiarism and AI detectors like Originality.ai

Ashley Stahl

forbes.com

Originality.ai Do give them a shot! 

Sri Krishna

venturebeat.com

For web publishers, Originality.ai will enable you to scan your content seamlessly, see who has checked it previously, and detect if an AI-powered tool was implored.

Industry Trends

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it important to check for plagiarism?

Tools for conducting a plagiarism check between two documents online are important as it helps to ensure the originality and authenticity of written work. Plagiarism undermines the value of professional and educational institutions, as well as the integrity of the authors who write articles. By checking for plagiarism, you can ensure the work that you produce is original or properly attributed to the original author. This helps prevent the distribution of copied and misrepresented information.

What is Text Comparison?

Text comparison is the process of taking two or more pieces of text and comparing them to see if there are any similarities, differences and/or plagiarism. The objective of a text comparison is to see if one of the texts has been copied or paraphrased from another text. This text compare tool for plagiarism check between two documents has been built to help you streamline that process by finding the discrepancies with ease.

How do Text Comparison Tools Work?

Text comparison tools work by analyzing and comparing the contents of two or more text documents to find similarities and differences between them. This is typically done by breaking the texts down into smaller units such as sentences or phrases, and then calculating a similarity score based on the number of identical or nearly identical units. The comparison may be based on the exact wording of the text, or it may take into account synonyms and other variations in language. The results of the comparison are usually presented in the form of a report or visual representation, highlighting the similarities and differences between the texts.

String comparison is a fundamental operation in text comparison tools that involves comparing two sequences of characters to determine if they are identical or not. This comparison can be done at the character level or at a higher level, such as the word or sentence level.

The most basic form of string comparison is the equality test, where the two strings are compared character by character and a Boolean result indicating whether they are equal or not is returned. More sophisticated string comparison algorithms use heuristics and statistical models to determine the similarity between two strings, even if they are not exactly the same. These algorithms often use techniques such as edit distance, which measures the minimum number of operations (such as insertions, deletions, and substitutions) required to transform one string into another.

Another common technique for string comparison is n-gram analysis, where the strings are divided into overlapping sequences of characters (n-grams) and the frequency of each n-gram is compared between the two strings. This allows for a more nuanced comparison that takes into account partial similarities, rather than just exact matches.

String comparison is a crucial component of text comparison tools, as it forms the basis for determining the similarities and differences between texts. The results of the string comparison can then be used to generate a report or visual representation of the similarities and differences between the texts.

What is Syntax Highlighting?

Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors and integrated development environments (IDEs) that helps to visually distinguish different elements of a code or markup language. It does this by coloring different elements of the code, such as keywords, variables, functions, and operators, based on a predefined set of rules.

The purpose of syntax highlighting is to make the code easier to read and understand, by drawing attention to the different elements and their structure. For example, keywords may be colored in a different hue to emphasize their importance, while comments or strings may be colored differently to distinguish them from the code itself. This helps to make the code more readable, reducing the cognitive load of the reader and making it easier to identify potential syntax errors.

How Can I Conduct a Plagiarism Check between Two Documents Online?

With our tool it’s easy, just enter or upload some text, click on the button “Compare text” and the tool will automatically display the diff between the two texts.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Text Compare Tool?

Using text comparison tools is much easier, more efficient, and more reliable than proofreading a piece of text by hand. Eliminate the risk of human error by using a tool to detect and display the text difference within seconds.

What Files Can You Inspect with This Text Compare Tool?

We have support for the file extensions .pdf, .docx, .odt, .doc and .txt. You can also enter your text or copy and paste text to compare.

Will My Data Be Shared?

There is never any data saved by the tool, when you hit “Upload” we are just scanning the text and pasting it into our text area so with our text compare tool, no data ever enters our servers.

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