What is Proofreading?

Proofreading is a much-misunderstood part of the editing process. It is, in fact, the last step in editing; a last chance to catch errors in pre-publication versions of books. Originating from the Latin probare, meaning to “confirm by testing,” proofreading is the practice of reading galley proofs before a book is sent to print. Thus, the name proofreading.

Somewhere along the line, proofreading got confused with copyediting, which occurs earlier in the editing process and is, typically, much more involved. Depending on the type of work, editing consists of various stages, from developmental and structural editing, through to copy and stylistic editing, and finally proofreading. There is often some overlap in these phases. Stylistic and copy editing, for example, frequently go hand in hand. But proofreading doesn’t happen until all the other editing is done.

When you engage a proofreader, your work has been thoroughly edited. You have likely done multiple re-writes. The table of contents, the bibliography, index, and appendices, the dedication, the copyright statement, and the publishing information have been compiled. And the manuscript has been formatted in preparation for publishing. It’s possible that many people have been involved and it’s the proofreader’s job to make sure that all the work that was done has culminated in a well-crafted, consistent, complete, and error-free book. (At least as error-free as possible.)

There are a lot of different terms used in editing, and few of them are definitive in their meaning. Because editing phases often do intersect, the terms become jumbled and confused. Proofreading is one of the terms that actually has a specific meaning. And it doesn’t even involve editing at all. A proofreader does look for errors and inconsistencies, and points them out if they exist. But the changes are made by the copyeditor, the designer, or someone else who has authority to make those changes. At this stage, the changes are likely to be fairly minor. In the case of a major mistake, the author will be consulted as well.

Proofreading is most effective when it is done by someone who has not yet worked on the manuscript during the editing process. Fresh eyes will be more likely to spot errors than those of an editor who has done multiple passes through progressive rewrites and updates. By the third or fourth draft, a copyeditor won’t spot mistakes as readily as someone who has never seen the work before. It is to the author’s advantage to give this important final step to someone without any preconceived notions about the content.

So, while proofreading is part of the editing process, editing and proofreading are two separate stages in that process. Editing focuses on the writing and the organization of a manuscript; proofreading is really just checking the editing.