Proofreaders, as the name already suggests, do proofreading of written texts. They are specialized in correcting manuscripts of books, online publications, or journals along several criteria, namely., spelling, grammar, punctuation, style, and typography. Proofreaders either remove errors immediately or else mark them using standardized correction marks. The activity of proofreading is related to the activity of editing without coinciding with the latter altogether. Editing as such implies proofreading, while proofreading on the other hand does not imply editing. Unlike editors, the job of proofreaders is not to correct a text in terms of its content. The work of proofreaders centers on ensuring the material and formal correctness of a given textual template.
The demand for proofreading services has been increasing again in recent years. This is due, on the one hand, to the inadequacy of computer-based spell checkers which at most are useful to recognize blatantly obvious spelling mistakes such as common typing errors or careless mistakes. When it comes to determining more subtle errors, though, such programs do not lead to the desired result or even turn out to be counterproductive. Many syntactical violations or subtle punctuation errors mostly remain unrecognized. On top of that is the loss of written-language skills among students, which is much lamented by university teachers. Uncertainties regarding relevant language norms as well as old and new spelling are common – even among teacher education students.
Taking this into account, it is not surprising that an increasing number of students are willing to make use of the proofreading services offered by ghostwriting agencies. This development provides a timely opportunity for those who intend to get started as a freelance proofreader. In academic ghostwriting freelance proofreaders ensure linguistically flawless text works taking into consideration the specific specialist terminology. Moreover, proofreaders within the context of academic ghostwriting make sure that the formal criteria of academic writing are complied with. Do all headlines have a uniform format? Is the author’s citation correct? Do all tables and illustrations have captions? Is the spacing consistent? Do the page references made in the table of contents match those in the body text? Qualified proofreaders leave none of these or similar questions unanswered. Proofreaders usually obtain their perfect knowledge of language by way of language-specific studies (e.g., linguistics, German/English studies, literature studies).
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