Why Proofreading?

Grammar is a universal constant; in order for our words to be understood successfully by our audience, we need to have rules to follow. In checking those rules, and making sure homonyms haven’t slipped in, is where a Proofreader is most valuable.

Nowadays, there a number of websites and apps you can visit in order to check the spelling of your work, as well as the grammatical accuracy, but these apps are often tripped up by the meaning of your writing, which is where human eyes are often more accurate. Grammatical sense and/or spelling mistakes may be the most commonly seen uses of proofreading, but they are not the only ones. e.g. if you write a short story or novel with the character’s name spelt ‘Erik’ in the first few mentions, ‘Eric’ is still technically correct and as such, is unlikely to ping the spellcheck of whatever computer you are using. Likewise, if you start off referring to silicon in the beginning of your technical report, you do not want to write a conclusion referring to silicone, given that they are dramatically different products. A computer would probably not cope as well with silicone as it would the more traditional/practical silicon…

Even then, there is the dilemma of British or American spelling? Colour or color? Specialise or specialize? What is acceptable to one company or publishing house, can mark you as not paying sufficient attention in another. Thus, while you can and should check your own work for spelling errors as you go, it is often useful to have another pair of eyes who can check for both grammatical and linguistic consistency.