A dozen good reasons to invest in proofreading services

In 1962, NASA launched its first Mariner rocket into space. Costing the vast sum of $80 million – that’s around $835 million today – this ambitious project was designed to get the US onto the front foot in the space race. Yet, within five minutes, the rocket exploded. The cause? A lack of a single hyphen in some mathematical data pointed the spacecraft back towards Earth. Turns out, it was rocket science. Now, your company may not be sending your product or service into a galaxy far, far way, but your reputation could just as easily crash and burn if you don’t pay attention to the details in your important business documentation. Your annual report, capability statement, marketing collateral, website copy, social media posts, whitepapers and technical reports – all represent your business and all can benefit from the eagle-eyes of a professional proofreader. Here are just 12 of the many reasons why investing in professional proofreading makes perfect sense:

1. A spell checker or grammar bot won’t pick up everything

Sure, both of these tech tools make our lives a lot easier, but it pays to remember that they really are limited in what they can do. For example:

• They won’t flag up when a word is spelled correctly but it’s the wrong word to use. For example, ‘He had always wanted to sale the world’ will slip through completely unchallenged
• They won’t draw attention to inconsistent formatting such as varied line spacing, a mix of heading styles, differing bullet point lists and a whole lot more
• They sometimes suggest replacements words that may be unsuitable or downright wrong
• They are not subject matter experts (think, technical or medical terminology)
• Deviations from a supplied style guide won’t be picked up
• Neither will inconsistent use of acronyms and abbreviations be corrected.

In other words, spell checkers and grammar bots won’t pick up every time a mist ache is maid.

2. It enhances your credibility

It’s an established part of the writing process for an author to enhance their credibility by having their manuscript professionally proofread before publication. The author’s fans expect the latest instalment to be a riveting read, free from the distraction of spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. It’s no different for a business wanting to ensure the loyalty of its customers. When all your business communications are of a high standard, your business projects an image of being trustworthy and reliable. In other words, credible. Your credibility is especially important when your competitors have a range of products or services that are similar to your own. A professional proofreader will ensure that your business communications add to your brand’s standing, not detract from it.

3. The ‘voice’

Documents of all kinds are frequently the result of many contributors’ efforts and will, almost inevitably, contain a mix of writing styles and terminology as a result. To make the document sound professional, it’s important that it speaks with one ‘voice’ and that’s where a professional proofreader comes in. They have the skills to ensure consistency of tone and ensure that terminology is used in the same context and style throughout. For instance, if the contains a mix of ‘we’re’, ‘can’t’, and ‘don’t’ together with ‘we are’, ‘cannot’, and ‘do not’, it is jarring for the reader. What’s more, even small differences like these make it obvious where one contributor’s input begins and another’s ends. The professional proofreader will take care of this inconsistency and change the words to align with the document’s audience.

4. Poor punctuation and grammar

Investing in the services of a professional proofreader will ensure that your target audience isn’t distracted from your core business messages because of poor punctuation and grammar. When a reader comes across a mistake once, it’s bad enough. But when that mistake is repeated many times over, it can become a serious distraction and will leave a very poor impression of your attention to detail capabilities. There’s a whole body of research out there that confirms that consumers/investors/clients are reluctant to do business with a company that allows multiple errors to slip through. Don’t let yours be one of those companies!

5. Avoid repetition

Using the same word or phrase multiple times in one sentence or paragraph can sound clunky and make for laboured reading. An expert proofreader will suggest using alternatives or restructure the sentence for better flow.

6. Simple mistakes can be simply embarrassing

Amongst picking up a whole host of other mistakes, the professional proofreader will correct your word usage, saving you embarrassment or potentially, ridicule. Professional proofreaders are hypervigilant about spotting any instances of words which are commonly used incorrectly, including:

• affect vs. effect
• tack vs. tact
• lose vs. loose
• complement vs. compliment
• licence vs. license
• advise vs. advice
• slither vs. sliver
• and many, many more besides!

7. Crystal clear clarity of your business messages

You may think what you’ve written is perfectly clear. After all, you wrote it! But will your readers interpret it in the same way? It’s a professional proofreader’s job to flag up any instances of ambiguity. Take this old joke, for example. An engineer is going to the supermarket. As he’s leaving, his partner calls out, ‘Grab a litre of milk and if they have eggs, grab a dozen.’ The engineer comes home with 13 litres of milk and says, ‘They had eggs!’ OK, we warned you it was an old joke. But it beautifully illustrates the kind of ambiguity that a professional proofreader is on the look-out for and will correct for you. Similarly, the expert proofreader will spot when a hyphen provides much-needed clarity. For instance, they’ll pick up that your Operational Report describes staff working, variously,  ‘twenty four-hour shifts’, ‘twenty-four hour shifts’ and ‘twenty-four-hour shifts’. Which one is correct? It’s amazing that just that one small horizontal mark can make such an enormous difference in a reader’s understanding, yet it’s so easily missed. But not by a professional proofreader.

8. Your competitors will employ a professional proofreader

If you wonder why your competitors’ marketing materials and websites seem to be so much more polished than yours, then it’s a sure-fire bet that they’ve invested in the services of a professional proofreader. Polished copy, grammatically correct wording, and error-free important business documentation will help give your business the edge that it’s been missing.

9. Your team members are busy enough

So many businesses rely on a member of staff – almost certainly already very busy with their normal day-to-day activities – to undertake the job of proofreading important documents. However, this option is fraught with danger, not least because the staff member:

• Is not a professional proofreader and will miss picking up mistakes in style, formatting, grammar and spelling
• Will be under time pressure and may not be able to give the document the word-by-word focus required
• May be a contributor to the document, risking missing errors by being too familiar with the content
• May not have the skills to correct mistakes or make tweaks to the wording so that the document reads smoothly and with one voice
• May be reluctant to correct content written by a colleague.

By comparison, a business communications company such as Proof Communications has  a whole team of professional proofreaders on standby, just waiting for your call.

10. Mistakes can be expensive

Remember that NASA mistake we told you about at the beginning? Well, there are plenty more where that came from. Every day, companies around the world find themselves many millions of dollars out of pocket in making reparation for mistakes caused by the devastating effects of ambiguity, missed commas, typos and other errors. You may well say to yourself, ‘But it’s only those big corporations that need to invest in professional proofreaders’, but you’d be wrong. Irrespective of its size, every time your business advertises, publishes, or otherwise makes public wording relating to your company that contains errors and you do nothing about it, you’re effectively chip, chip, chipping away at your reputation and credibility.

11. A professional proofreader goes above and beyond

Proofreaders are frequently the recipients of jibes about being too nit-picky or overly pedantic. But thank goodness they are! Their job is to sit quietly and without distraction to read your business communications very carefully, one word at a time, without rushing. In fact, it’s exactly because of a professional proofreader’s laser-like focus, forensic attention to detail and ability to withstand sometimes industrial levels of boredom that so many errors are picked up that otherwise would have made it into print or online. Of course, it’s not just one needle-in-a haystack error that a proofreader will pick up. Typically, in a 50-page document, a professional proofreader will highlight hundreds of errors – that equates to hundreds of opportunities to save your business from reputational damage or embarrassment.

12. A proofreader will help you improve your own writing

Because a professional proofreader will use Track Changes to make their corrections, you can see exactly where the errors in your document lay. By reviewing the marked-up copy, you can begin to get a better grasp of where you can improve your own business writing and become more confident in the documents you produce.

How Proof Communications’ professional proofreaders can help

At Proof Communications, we understand that it’s critical to you that your professionalism shines through in all of your business communications. Our expert proofreading services are geared towards ensuring that your business always looks its best. If you’d like assistance with your business communications, then don’t hesitate to get in touch today or call us on +61 2 8036 5532 or 0448 566 377 and we’ll be happy to help.