All about the profession of proofreader

Today, textual information is found everywhere: in books, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. Conscientious publishers and owners of good sites try to produce quality material from the point of view of the Russian language. However, even literate authors often make mistakes. What can we say about people who are able to generate interesting ideas, but are not friendly with the rules of grammar and spelling.

This is where proofreaders come to the rescue. They monitor the literacy of the texts and correct inconsistencies without affecting the meaning of the phrases. Our article will tell you about the peculiarities of the work of such people, their duties and employment opportunities.

A proofreader is an important profession. Authors of fiction books, heads of publishing houses, creators of text agencies on the Internet resort to their services. Of course, today there are many computer programs that help to correct mistakes made through ignorance or carelessness. For example, MS Word, in which many authors work (copywriters, rewriters, creators of literary works), highlights misspelled words in red, and underlines poorly matched sentences in green. However, this cannot be a guarantee of literacy of the text.

Often there are situations in which, due to the wrong letter, one word turns into another. The machine cannot recognize such situations. There are also non-obvious mistakes, missing words, repetition of the same thought, etc. Online programs ("Spelling" and others) also do not always recognize the authors' mistakes.It follows from this that it is impossible to completely replace a person with automated processes in this matter.

Separately, it is worth highlighting the profession of an editor. His duties include not only correcting typos, punctuation, spelling and lexical errors. He delves deeply into the meaning of what has been written, checks the correspondence of the text to the subject indicated in the title. If necessary, such a specialist rewrites whole sentences, making them more harmonious and beautiful, removes unnecessary information and repetitions. Often it is even the responsibility of the editor to verify the accuracy of the facts contained in an article or book.

Sometimes the positions considered are held by different people in the company. In this case, the text first goes to the editor for improvement, and then goes to the proofreader, who conducts a final check.

The professional standard defines the responsibilities of each profession. To get a complete picture of what is being considered here, it is worth describing in detail what such a specialist does. So, the proofreader:

• carefully reads the text, finding and correcting typos (adds missing letters, removes unnecessary characters, including spaces);
• eliminates punctuation defects;
• corrects spelling mistakes;
• checks semantic correspondence, observance of logical connection;
• eliminates slang words (if this is not allowed by the requirements), vernacular expressions, unauthorized abbreviations;
• checks whether tables and formulas are correctly formatted, whether additional elements are numbered correctly;
• forms paragraphs;
• compiles lists, replacing them with enumerations (if necessary);
• monitors the presence of subheadings, key phrases;
• verifies the subheadings against the outline.

Thus, the result should be a text that meets all the requirements. At the same time, the proofreader preserves the author's style, the main idea of ​​the text, leaves all the presented facts, reasoning, and conclusions.

If a part-time specialist is also an editor, his duties expand significantly. In addition to the above, such an employee:

• rewrites ugly worded sentences;
• removes repetitive thoughts, even if they are written in different words;
• eliminates unnecessary phrases that do not carry a semantic load;
• checks the consistency and consistency of the construction of the story;
• makes the text brighter and more expressive (if necessary), etc.

Despite the apparent simplicity, the work of the proofreader is not suitable for everyone. Like many specific professions, this one requires special personal and professional qualities. First, let's consider what knowledge a specialist should have.

1. Literacy. First of all, a proofreader must be fluent in the language. It is necessary to know absolutely all the spelling rules.
2. General level of development. The specialist must be well-read and versatile, because texts of various topics can be submitted for verification. Intelligence is also not the least important, because only an intelligent person can trace the presence of logic in statements.
3. Knowledge of computers and the Internet. Often, proofreaders are allowed to use various additional programs and Internet dictionaries as assistants, because with a large amount of work, even an impeccably literate person can miss a stupid mistake or typo. In addition, information is usually given on electronic media, which requires knowledge of text editors.

Depending on the specifics of the company in which the person works, he may need some other skills as well.

• Acquaintance with GOSTs of paperwork. If some business texts are subject to verification, it will not be possible to do without understanding the principles of workflow.
• Understanding the basics of typography. If you are checking any printed publication, you need to be aware of the requirements for preparing the material for release.
• Understanding of formulas, various symbols, specific terms. Such knowledge may be required when working with teaching and scientific materials.
• Knowledge of foreign language. Sometimes proofreaders work with translations, so it can be useful to refer to the original source when editing for a more accurate wording.

In addition to the above knowledge, of great importance are also some personal qualities, without which a person will not be able to work long and successfully in this direction.

• Patience and perseverance... The work is monotonous and repetitive. For several hours, a person has to look for errors in sometimes completely uninteresting texts. At the same time, the creations of completely illiterate people often come across, which can unbalance. Therefore, it is important to remain calm and equanimous, even if the number of mistakes is approaching catastrophic.
• Mindfulness and the ability to concentrate... There is another extreme - a curious topic comes across. In order not to get carried away by the content and not be distracted from the main responsibilities, it is important to be able to concentrate on spelling. In this case, good processing speed is also important.
• A responsibility. This quality can come in handy in any profession, including the one in question.

Most of the proofreaders are people who have graduated from the university in one of the humanitarian specialties. There is no specialty "Proofreader-editor" in universities. To get the necessary knowledge, it is enough to enter the Faculty of Philology or Linguistics. If you plan to work in the future in the editorial office of a magazine or newspaper, an excellent choice would be specialty "Publishing".

If you want to work remotely and don't expect to get a lot of pay, college knowledge may be enough. You can also just after graduation attend courseshelping to improve your language skills. Of course, this option is only suitable for those who have an innate sense of literacy and high intellectual abilities.

As for the additional knowledge that may be required to work in a particular company (basic computer skills, knowledge of the basics of office work, understanding of the requirements for articles on the Internet, etc.), you can get it yourself.

As already mentioned, a person with the skills of a proofreader and editor can either get a job in a specific place or conclude an agreement on remote cooperation. Let's consider the most common options.

1. Book publishers, editorial offices periodicals (magazines, newspapers). In such places, mistakes are unacceptable. Given the seriousness of such companies, the requirements for employees are high. As a rule, only people with higher education are hired.
2. Advertising agencies. Firms that produce banners, landing pages, advertisements and advertisements in the media and the Internet usually have a large workforce, including not only designers and copywriters with creative thinking, but also people who follow literacy.
3. Several companies doing business in various fields. In most firms, the literacy of all employees is a prerequisite, therefore, a separate position of the proofreader is not provided. Nevertheless, among the vacancies you can find such options. At the same time, sometimes very reputable companies offering a good salary are looking for specialists who check documents for errors.
4. Firms engaged in the translation of fiction and technical literature. As a rule, in such companies there are people who are fluent in a foreign language. However, translations are often clumsy. Therefore, before they are published in print, they are "polished" by editors.
5. Large sites. The analysis of remote employment options should start from this point. The owners of serious sites have authors of articles, designers and, of course, proofreaders and editors on their staff.
6. Proofreading and editing agencies. These are special companies that provide text verification services. By contacting them and offering your services, you can count on a very promising position and worthy remuneration.
7. Sphere of copywriting. Freelancers who work on their own often hire people as their assistants to check the written texts and bring them to perfection in terms of spelling.

The income level of a representative of the profession in question may vary. This is influenced by many factors:

• type of activity (office work or freelance);
• place of residence (companies in large cities usually pay more);
• the nature of the remuneration (monthly salary or piece rate);
• responsibilities (light proofreading or deep literary editing);
• education (employees with philological degrees usually have a more decent income);
• the amount of work (the greater the load that falls on the shoulders of a specialist, the more solid remuneration he receives).

Thus, a proofreader can earn from 10 rubles for 1000 checked characters of the text... These low rates are commonly encountered by non-college beginners who find themselves on a freelance exchange. The highest bar has not been set. Some specialists with extensive experience and good recommendations charge from 300 rubles for editing 1000 characters or more. As for the fixed salary in publishing houses and other companies, here the salary can range from 10 to 100 thousand rubles per month, depending on the region and other nuances.