If you are passionate about reading and writing, and you desire to earn doing something you are passionate about? Proofreading jobs might be something you are looking for. It is a flexible occupation where you can either work in a room full of other salaried people, with your desk and cubicle at some publishing house or you can work from home. You also get the privilege to work at your own pace and time (but finish before the deadline, if you wish to receive payment.)
WHAT IS PROOFREADING, AND WHAT DOES IT’S OCCUPATION DEMAND?
Proofreading is the activity of giving a final touch to any piece of writing before delivering it to the audience. The correction of minor errors such as grammatical errors, typos, words misspelled, punctuations, inconsistencies formatting, the spacing between lines, etc.
Proofreaders go through the contents and pay attention to minute details, and make quality corrections. Authors or companies usually hire freelance proofreaders or approach publishing companies for such services.
IS PROOFREADING DIFFERENT FROM EDITING?
People mostly mix up proofreading with editing, whereas, they are different stages of preparing a draft for publishing. It’s a very popular yet mistaken idea, that editing of the content may not be necessary.
Editing is the step just after completing the writing, it continues it the draft is finalized. It deals with amending issues at the core of the writing, such as clarity of language and sentence construction, for example. Editing is to ensure that the final written draft has improved in terms of its readability, clarity, and tone of the text. An editor must scrutinize 
and polish the text for the proper narration. While proofreading seeks to make writing error-free, editing aims to improve the quality of the write-up. Unlike proofreading, editing requires much collaboration with the author(s), as the amount of the work is more. Issues such as reduction of words, if required, fall under the realm of editing, not proofreading.
PROOFREADING AS A LUCRATIVE SOURCE OF EARNING
Error-free content attracts the readers, and this is what makes proofreading so crucial. It is proofreading that makes written content appropriate and suitable enough for it to reach out perfectly to the target group, which may include customers, students, general audience, professionals, etc. This is where the necessity of proofreading lies.
When you are looking to publish a piece, be it regarding anything, the stage of proofreading cannot be ignored. Hence, there is a huge need for proofreaders in the contemporary job market. Authors are always in search of proofreaders who can help them get their written content proof-read before sending them for publishing.
Proofreading jobs require a minimum amount of qualification and investment to get profitable returns, it is a job one must look forward to gaining experience and earn a reasonably good amount. If you love correcting grammatical errors, this job is worth giving a shot! There are innumerable Editing firms, which are hired by authors/companies, who need proofreaders to meet their tasks. Many organizations indulged with content-writing also hire them directly.
A proof–reader needs to do is give a quality final check-through to the content before delivering it to the audience. They need to look for, and correct typographic and grammatical mistakes, as well as style preferences. Anyone who is indulged with producing content, ranging from bloggers, small businesses, as well as large firms, may need assistance from a proofreader. While it is not mandatory, that companies would hire a proofreader, many do so to meet the requirements of this stage. They want to ensure that everything they publish goes through a second set of eyes to guarantee its error-free nature.
In this case of freelance proofreading, you may be asked to proofread anything, ranging from social media updates to emails and blog posts to books.
Content and Client in Proofreading
Many proofreaders also choose to focus on one main type of content, based on their interests. These may be: –
- Student essays
- Medical transcription
- Court transcripts
- Press releases
- Self-published novel
- Online articles and blog posts
- Legal transcription
- Restaurant menus
- Newsletters
Besides these, some proofreaders also work with specific clients, such as: –
- Bloggers
- Book authors
- Coaches/Consultants
- Real estate agents
- Restaurants
- Local businesses
There are several benefits of working from home as an online proofreader. Freelance proofreading jobs often provide the flexibility of time and hence can be undertaken as a part-time job besides the regular 9-5 one. Alongside this, you just need to have a mobile or a tablet to do this task, a fast internet connection is also not a compulsion. As a bonus comes to the desperate need for proofreaders in the current times. Tons of content creators are looking for people to polish their writings.
In terms of salary, like every other online job, what proofreading fetches, varies from considerable to very high. According to Salary.com, proofreaders earn a median of $53,037 as of January 29, 2021.
Skills required for Proofreading Jobs
Proofreading does require some specific skills, but they are not that difficult. Besides obviously being good in time-management, you must also have a great vocabulary and top-notch grammar skills. Some companies do ask for a college degree or experience at least, but if you have none, there is nothing to feel sad about it. There will plenty of small businesses willing to hire you for your services. And once you gain experience by working in these small firms, you can surely try for the bigger ones. However, to work with large companies, you might just require having some advanced skills, be well versed with Stylebook guidelines, for instance. Needless to say, that it is a must for a proof-reader to know using tools such as MS-Office, Google Docs, for example.
It is not difficult to find proofreading jobs, either. Many sites, such as American Journal Experts and Babbletype, regularly hire online proofreaders. And if you wish to work freelance, you must actively market yourself. If you are looking for proofreading jobs you will mostly get listings of editing companies looking for people willing to work as online proofreaders. Sometimes, you will find a freelance proofreading job by searching job-specific keywords on Google or any other relevant website.
One important aspect of grasping proofreading work, especially if you want to be hired by a corporate company or publishing enterprise rather than freelance clients, is the editing test. Pretty much any legitimate company hiring proof–readers will have an editing test, passing this test is enough to get hired.
CONCLUSION:
An extra pair of eyes just to read in between eyes and notice the errors a writer missed themselves is a necessity for official purposes. No one desires to deliver content with wrong grammar or incorrect punctuation. Hence, there is a demand for proofreaders in the literary market. if you tend to be a grammar Nazi, this job will get your money for being that. How fun does that sound? Go explore the literary world and take pride in correcting language. Put to use English proficiency, what say? Online proofreading job is looking for you.
