You’re looking for more information about what a proofreader is and what this person actually does, especially if you’re a student. Well, these individuals – whether editors or proofreaders – check for consistency in your written English. A proofreader carefully reviews a piece of text, or an academic essay in your case, and ensures there are no errors, misspellings, grammar issues, or confusion in the arguments and tone of your paper. They clear up where those coffee fuelled late nights writing your paper have missed.
If you’re like most students then you might feel your standard of English is quite high and you don’t really need the services of a proofreader. You got into university without any help, after all. But you’d be wrong. Everyone can benefit from a professional checking through their text – it’s a second pair of eyes reviewing what you’ve written from an impartial viewpoint: if there’s something that doesn’t quite fit then it will be changed, not kept in ‘because I don’t understand how to change it’. Academic proofreading is a service individuals choose if they’re not quite sure.
If you’re using MS Word to write your university papers then you’re probably going to use the spell checker (and the integrated grammar checker) that it has. While you can reply on this to pick up some of the wrong spelled words, it’s just not going to detect the errors that will confuse the reader when they see ‘where’ instead of ‘we’re’ was used. It doesn’t understand that the sentence is now confusing and the reader (your professor) wonders what other mistakes you’ve failed to spot.
A proofreader has an eye for detail, doesn’t miss errors, and has a love of the English language. Our proofreaders have a background of proofreading, writing and editing in academia as we feel this is important when editing essays, dissertations or research papers. You want someone checking through your work who has been through what you are completing now and understands what explanation you need about the different corrections they are making.
So, if you value your time in academia and you want to exceed on your course, employing a proofreader to check over your work is a must.