Isn’t proofreading and editing the same thing?

Proofreading is the last stage AFTER copy-editing and BEFORE a text is ready for publication. Apart from checking for grammar, spelling, typos and general consistency, the proofreader acts as quality control to pick up errors missed previously, or to point out issues introduced during the layout of your text.

My Afrikaans and English proofreading pen has, for example, graced the pages of:

> activity books for preschoolers

> romance novels as well as true crime (exposing Boereverneukers now as seen on TV)

> textbooks on company law

> more cookbooks I can shake a spatula at (by South Africa’s only Michelin-star chef as well as a couple of MasterChef contestants)

> guides for teenagers about their behaviour online

> tell-all exposés about the lives of the rich and famous

> government guides on environmental-friendly living (winning Best One-off Publication at the SA Publication Forum awards)

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT?

Text check:

• Word and line breaks

• Typos and introduced errors

• Spelling

• Punctuation

• Grammar

Structural check:

• Tables, figures and illustrations

• Layout, captions, headers and footers

Cross check:

• Index and internal cross-references

• Contents page, page numbers and chapter titles