Style

In these posts, we look at how proofreaders and editors should approach different writing styles and document types. Let us know if there are any style issues you'd like us to cover on the blog.

  • Proofreading Resources: Style Guides

    Proofreading Resources: Style Guides

    Feb 10, 2020

    • Proofreading Resources
    • Proofreading Tips
    • Style

    Style guides are crucial for proofreading and editing. As a freelancer, you may come to depend on them quite heavily! After all, a good style guide will tell you everything you need to know to edit a document, from spelling preferences to citation styles. But which style guides do you need? And where can you […]

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  • Copy Editing vs. Proofreading: What You Need to Know

    Copy Editing vs. Proofreading: What You Need to Know

    Feb 06, 2020

    • Editing Tips
    • Professional
    • Proofreading Tips
    • Style

    In the publishing world, copy editing and proofreading both take place toward the end of the editing process. However, these terms are tricky to pin down. And to confuse matters further, many freelance editors offer a mix of both. But there is a distinction between the two, so let’s look at what makes copy editing […]

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  • The Ideal Date

    The Ideal Date

    Dec 11, 2018

    • Common Errors
    • Dialects
    • Other Errors
    • Proofreading Tips
    • Style

    Hello, reader. You look lovely today. We at Knowadays know this may seem a little forward, but… what would your dream date be? Our dates aren’t terribly romantic, but they’re always formatted impeccably. Yes, today we’re talking about the finer points of formatting dates in writing. Regional Differences The main issue that determines date format […]

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  • Proofreading and Editing Tips: Proofreading Creative Writing

    Proofreading Creative Writing

    Jul 30, 2018

    • Creative Writing
    • Proofreading Tips
    • Style

    Truth hurts. That’s why everyday life is full of little white lies, and why most of the human race avoids telling anyone that their baby isn’t all that pretty. But proofreaders aren’t so lucky. Our career is a world of uncomfortable truths. And this is especially true when working with authors and other creative writers. […]

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  • MHRA Referencing

    Jun 15, 2018

    • Academic Editing
    • Punctuation
    • Referencing and Citations
    • Style

    Remember when you used to get ‘Too Hot for TV’ videos of your favourite TV shows? Remember how exciting they were? Well, prepare to feel that kind of excitement again in this introduction to MHRA [PDF] referencing: a system considered Too Hot for the Proofreading Academy Course. Actually, it wasn’t so much ‘too hot’ as […]

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  • Proofreading and Editing Tips: Formatting Titles in Academic Documents

    Formatting Titles in Academic Documents

    May 18, 2018

    • Academic Editing
    • Formatting
    • Proofreading Tips
    • Style

    Although proofreading and formatting are different, they overlap in some respects. For instance, when an essay names a source in the text, it is standard for the proofreader to ensure its title is appropriately formatted. Let’s take a look at how formatting titles works. Italics and Quote Marks Formatting titles in the text of a […]

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  • Proofreading and Editing Tips: Proofreading for Websites

    Proofreading for Websites

    Apr 26, 2018

    • Business Editing
    • Proofreading Tips
    • Style

    You can’t always apply the same proofreading guidelines to different kinds of documents. Academic proofreading, for instance, is very different to proofreading web copy. This is one reason why proofreaders haven’t yet been replaced by robots. Importantly, reading on screen is different to reading a printed page. And this may mean you need to approach […]

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  • Citing Edited Books in Chicago Style

    Apr 13, 2018

    • Academic Editing
    • Proofreading Tips
    • Referencing and Citations
    • Style

    Sound the celebratory trombone and strike the ritual tambourine. It’s referencing time again! And today we’re looking at how to cite edited books again. In this post, we’re going to look at Chicago referencing. There are two versions of this system: Author–date citations and a reference list (more common in the sciences) Footnotes and a […]

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  • Citing Edited Books in MLA and IEEE

    Citing Edited Books in MLA and IEEE

    Feb 15, 2018

    • Academic Editing
    • Proofreading Tips
    • Referencing and Citations
    • Style

    We’re sorry. We’ve made you wait, trembling with anticipation, for the next exciting instalment of our occasional series on referencing. Perhaps your desperation for referencing tips has led you to seek out the darker corners of the internet for dodgy tips cut with misconceptions. Stop. We have the good stuff. And if you’re not sure […]

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  • Citing Chapters of Edited Books in Harvard and APA

    Citing Chapters of Edited Books in Harvard and APA

    Dec 19, 2017

    • Academic Editing
    • Proofreading Tips
    • Referencing and Citations
    • Style

    The Becoming A Proofreader course has an academic referencing module that tells you how books, journal articles and websites should be cited in the Harvard, APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE styles. But it would take a hefty book to cover all possible sources and referencing styles. So every now and then our blog will focus […]

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