What Are the Different Types of Proofreading?

As a freelance proofreader, you need to be familiar with the different types of proofreading and the work they involve. You’ll likely work with a wide variety of clients on a range of document types, each of which will have its own requirements. 

In this post, we’ll provide a general overview of what a proofreader does, xplore the five major types of proofreading that will make up your day-to-day workload, as well as the tasks they involve:

1. Academic proofreading
2. Business proofreading
3. Print media proofreading
4. Translation proofreading
5. English as a second language (ESL) proofreading

What Is Proofreading?

After someone writes something, having a second set of eyes look over the work and check it for errors is helpful. This is where proofreading comes in. 

People often use the terms copy editing and proofreading interchangeably, but the services don’t necessarily include the same type of work all the time, so it’s important to know the difference between the two.

Put simply, after someone has proofread a document, it should:

• Have a consistent tone
• Use appropriate vocabulary while avoiding redundancies and wordiness
• Be free from spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors
• Follow a given style guide (if applicable)

1. Academic Proofreading

What Is Academic Proofreading?

Academic writing typically refers to documents by researchers and students. Generally, academic writing presents arguments to inform or convince the reader. With this in mind, when proofreading academic documents, you should ensure that your client:

• Achieves a clear, formal writing style
• Maintains an objective tone throughout (with some exceptions, such as reflective essays, which are by nature more personal)
• Uses subject-specific and technical terms where appropriate
• Correctly cites any sources according to the relevant referencing style (e.g., Chicago, APA, MLA, or any of the various in-house citation systems that colleges and universities use)

However, you’ll need to be especially careful about what changes you make and any comments you leave for your client when working on student documents. The reason is that most academic institutions have strict plagiarism rules for work that is being assessed.

It’s also worth noting that academic writing can vary greatly in complexity, depending on:

• The topic of the document (i.e., writing in some subject areas can be very technical, so for you to proofread it effectively, you may require familiarity with the subject matter or the technical vocabulary)
• The level of the document (i.e., undergraduate work is usually more accessible than postgraduate writing or professional research)

As a result, if you’re new to academic writing, starting out proofreading student work makes sense. It also makes sense to start with subject areas you know well from your own educational or professional background. You can then move on to more complex or unfamiliar documents when you feel ready.

Examples of Academic Writing

Many types of documents are produced in an academic setting. Some of the most common are:

• Essays
• Dissertations
• Research papers
• Journal articles
• Funding applications

2. Business Proofreading

What Is Business Proofreading?

Business writing refers to any document from a business or professional context. Your client may be a person or a company. Common types of business writing include:

• Formal business writing, which tends to have a very corporate tone (often based on the conventions of AP style). This kind of writing may overlap with academic writing in terms of: 
  – Checking that your client has used an appropriately impersonal tone
  – Needing to check that they’ve used jargon appropriately
  – Reviewing citations and references for some documents
  Common examples include business plans and reports.
• Personal professional writing (e.g., CVs, resumes, cover letters) and communications (e.g., emails, memos). These documents tend to be similar in style to formal business writing, though there is often more flexibility (e.g., using contractions in an email to a colleague would be fine even if doing so is usually discouraged in a business plan or report).
• Commercial, marketing, and other branded copy (e.g., newsletters, website content, press releases). This writing will usually be much more conversational than other business writing, but the style will depend heavily on the client’s brand voice and target audience.

Since the style of these documents can vary significantly, you may need to adapt your proofreading approach accordingly. You may also need to check that a piece follows a company style guide or brand voice guidelines. If so, your client should give you access to relevant documents or offer instructions in the brief they provide.

As with academic writing, proofreading some forms of business writing (e.g., financial reports, technical documentation, legal writing) may require specialist knowledge. But the main factors in most cases will be helping to ensure that your client’s writing is error-free and that they communicate their ideas effectively.

Examples of Business Writing

As a proofreader, some of the most common business documents you’ll encounter are:

• CVs (or resumes) and cover letters
• Letters of recommendation
• Business proposals
• Office announcements or memos
• Various marketing materials

3. Print Media Proofreading

What Is Print Media Proofreading?

This type of proofreading covers all kinds of creative writing and can include newspapers, magazines, short stories, articles, poems, scripts, screenplays, and books (both fiction and nonfiction). 

As a result, some proofreaders working with creative writing choose to specialize in a single genre or style, such as travel writing or crime fiction.

Proofreading creative writing can be very different from proofreading other types of writing. Key factors in this respect include the following:

• Creative writing often involves unique conventions for presenting text (e.g., the rules for using dialogue tags and quotation marks). As a result, you’ll need to make sure you know how the type of creative writing you’re working on is typically presented.
• An author’s individual voice and style are usually more distinct in creative writing than in business or academic writing. This means you should aim to preserve the author’s voice as much as possible when proofreading a creative piece.
• Unconventional spelling and grammar are also more common in creative writing, especially in fiction. While you should correct any obvious typos and inconsistencies, remember that nonstandard English may be intentional (e.g., to convey a particular dialect in dialogue).
• Proofreading creative writing may involve balancing the demands of an author (who may be very protective of their writing) and a publisher (who may have other priorities before publication).
• Publishers may ask you to proofread typeset “proof” texts (in either print or a PDF). Rather than editing such a document directly as you would in Microsoft Word, you may need to use annotation tools or traditional proofreader’s marks to note issues and suggest corrections.

Working on creative writing can therefore pose special challenges! It can also be very rewarding. But you may need to put in a bit of extra work to establish yourself in this world because it’s very competitive.

One helpful tip in this respect is to start out working with self-published authors, who provide a relatively abundant source of proofreading work. But going this way will also let you gain a bit more experience before you contact publishers.

Examples of Print Media Documents

As mentioned, print media documents can cover a lot of forms of writing, but here are some common ones you may encounter:

• Newspaper/magazine articles
• Newsletters
• Scripts and screenplays
• Short stories, poetry, and books

4. Translation Proofreading

What Is Translation Proofreading?

Proofreading translated materials can be difficult because they were originally written in a different language. Naturally, the words may sound less native or fluent. 

This type of proofreading can present a special challenge if the proofreader is required to be fluent in both the source language and the translated one (bilingual proofreading). This ability is necessary if they have to look over the original and the translation.

But the extra step is generally not needed as long as the translation has been done accurately (monolingual proofreading).

Key factors when proofreading translated materials include:

• Common misspellings and the misuse of homophones 
• Overuse of the passive voice
• Poor transitions between sentences or ideas
• Other stylistic concerns, such as poor word choice, monotonous paragraphs, and an inconsistent writing style

Examples of Translated Documents

Proofreading translated documents can have you working on anything that can be translated from one language to another: 

• Government documents, such as birth or marriage certificates
• Academic writing
• Internet content (e.g., blog posts or video scripts)
• All manner of creative writing, especially stories, poetry, and books

5. English as a Second Language (ESL) Proofreading

What Is ESL Proofreading?

ESL writing isn’t actually distinct from the above types of writing. It simply refers to pieces by people who do not speak English as a first language. As such, though, ESL documents may pose some unique challenges from a proofreading perspective.

The reason is that ESL writers may not have as strong a grasp of English as native speakers. Therefore, they may struggle to communicate their ideas clearly in writing. Issues you may encounter when working on ESL writing include:

• Unusual sentence structures that need clarifying
• Missing or misused articles (e.g., a experiment instead of an experiment)
• Faulty subject–verb agreement (e.g., the dogs is barking instead of the dogs are barking)
• Incorrect use of words, particularly homophones 

You should also keep in mind that ESL clients may struggle with more complex or technical feedback. Thus, when working with ESL clients, make sure your comments are clear and concise.

Examples of ESL Writing

ESL proofreading can definitely overlap with translation proofreading, so some of the documents you work on may be similar. They include:

• Academic material written by researchers, educators, and students
• Business documents and advertisements
• All manner of print media and creative writing

Becoming a Proofreader

We hope this introduction to different types of proofreading has been helpful. You can also find some template style sheets for academic, business, and creative writing here.

And if you’d like to learn more about different types of proofreading and how to succeed as a freelance proofreader, you can find specific modules for academic, creative, and business writing in our Becoming A Proofreader course. You can even try the course for free!