The Cranky Communicator: The Proof Is in the Puddin(g)

I’ve wanted to talk about proofreading for some time, but in the age of texting and tweeting I thought: to what avail? A recent subhead in a prestigious trade journal, however, revived my determination to do so. It read:

“Use this method to allogate (sic) limited maintenance resources to the most critical equipment.”

Now in the age of “ginormous” passing itself off as a legitimate word, I completed due diligence to determine that no such word as “allogate” exists.

So, here is my advice concerning proofreading:

1. If you do a lot of publications work, hire a professional proofreader with newspaper or publishing house experience. Alternately, identify a candidate for formal training.
2. After the initial draft and first round of editing and proofing, the author should not see it again until the manuscript is ready for publication or posting.
3. You should conduct three types of proofreading with three different proofreaders.
   1. Accuracy of content - Whether technical or mundane have someone check the correctness of the principles, theorems, relevance, facts, etc.
   2. Clarity of writing - No matter how complex or arcane have your spouse, secretary or even the UPS driver read the copy to see if it is comprehensible or at least tracks.
   3. Grammatically correct - Make sure voice and agreement are consistent, punctuation, spelling, etc., are correct and so forth.
4. Do not overlook the most obvious elements that will result in the most embarrassment if incorrect - the inside and outside / front and back covers.

True story: Whilst on a tour of a top tier commercial printer to solicit my business, the salesman was proudly pointing out an annual report cover they were running. I was impressed they were printing the report of a major auto repair chain and said, “Wow, you do work for Aamco?” To which he replied, “No, why?” “Well, it says here Aamco,” I said. The salesman turned ashen as the publication was the Armco annual report. Now how many times and by how many people do you think this piece was proofed?

Tip: ALWAYS proof the obvious first as this is often overlooked and the greatest source of embarassment. Check the company name, address and phone numbers, etc. A typo on page 31 will be forgiven; a mistake on the covers is unforgivable.

If you’ve been in this business for any length of time, I’m sure you have similar tales. I and those reading this blog would very much like to hear about them. Please share them with us.