To some the title of this article may seem like an oxymoron, but for others proofreading is an obsession. This unique but interesting play on the popular social media quizzes brings Harry Potter fans and grammar snobs together in a quiz called “Proofreading Quiz: What’s Your Harry Potter Proofreading Personality?”
Rules, standards and style guides are all something we can get behind, and are the hallmarks of a solid taxonomy. Professional editors perform a variety of tasks, from managing an entire publishing process to performing only a specific part of it. Their work is important and should be respected. However, there is a difference in proofreading and editing. Editing and proofreading produce different outcomes.
Editing involves a proactive editor making changes and suggestions that will improve the overall quality of your writing, particularly in relation to language use and expression. Proofreading is less ambitious than editing. It still performs a vital role, but it is the process of correcting surface errors in writing, such as grammatical, spelling, punctuation and other language mistakes.
So whether you are Dumbledore or Neville Longbottom, remember that effective proofreading is absolutely vital to the production of high-quality scholarly and professional documents.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in taxonomies, metadata, and semantic enrichment to make your content findable.
