1. The Power of Proofreading
Sherrie Voss Matthews, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Sherri Hildebrandt, Owner, Relativity Ink
John Braun, Vanguard Group
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2. What is proofreading?
Similar to editing
Give every aspect of a project a closer look, including:
Design
White space
Spelling
Punctuation
All nitpicky details

3. More than print
Many of us are responsible for multiple projects
Web: Do the links work?
Promotional materials: Does the pen write?
Maps: Does this make logical sense? Are geographical references correct?
Scripts: Does the text make sense to those outside of the organization?
Video: Are transitions even? Does the transcript match the script?
Books: Do the chapters match the table of contents? What about the index?

4. Bloopers: Grammar
I want TWO!
Watch for common
grammatical mistakes
by nonwriters.

5. Watch those apostrophes

6. Watch those apostrophes
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Sometimes you need an apostrophe

7. Watch those apostrophes
Sometimes you don’t.
Be sure you check AND that you know the difference!
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8. Watch for dropped letters
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9. Imports: Double-check them!
Sometimes designers pull the
wrong chart for the text.
Sometimes the wrong version has
been handed off to the design
team. Always check to make sure
the chart is correct to the text and
the context.
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10. Big mistakes
Cross-check photos to text.
This looks correct. It isn’t.
Why?
The photo isn’t Charles A. Wells, Jr.
This is Mr. Wells:

11. Big mistakes
This is not the
president.
It is also NOT Iowa.
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12. Photo crop horrors
Be careful your photos are not cropped too tightly.
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13. Photo crop horrors
Or cropped too far to the left or too far to the right.
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14. Photo crop horrors
Or have been cropped to the point that they
start to look a little creepy.
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15. Bad times
Make sure the
placeholder text
blocks are filled in
before you go to
press!
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16. Bad times
Check those dates. With a real, physical calendar!
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17. Bad times
Make sure that date actually exists!
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18. Misinterpretations
Keep this in mind:
Not everyone will see
illustrations or images
the same way.
Ask for multiple
opinions if anything
could be open to
interpretation.
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19. Misinterpretations
Nor will everyone read
things the same way.
Again: Think like a 12-
year-old boy.
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20. Triple-check spell check
Have fresh eyes when you
check. Spell check won’t
catch everything, but it
should have caught this!
Reading aloud will slow you
down and help you check
for flow.
Reading backwards will
slow you down and help you
check spelling.

21. Dirty minds always needed
This has made the
Facebook and TV
show rounds.
Don’t go there.
Even if it is funny,
don’t go there. :)

22. Triple-check spell check
Make sure you’ve run spell check
and had a few folks check the
dictionary before calling the neon
sign maker!
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23. Triple-check spell check
Even the big-time folks make mistakes!
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24. Dirty minds always needed
Even the Brits make
mistakes.
Obviously no 12-year-
old boys were involved
in the creation of this
headline.
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25. Dirty minds always needed
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26. Dirty minds always needed
Someone let this headline go
past without question.
Please, don’t be that person.
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27. Look at the graphics. With a dirty mind.
The humor is
unintentional.
Watch those
images!

28. Look at the graphics. And pop culture references.
I’m not a huge Beatles
fan.
Also not a World of
Warcraft player.
Something doesn’t add
up here, though.
Or Yoko Ono really
hasn’t aged well . . .
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29. Don’t assume everyone gets the joke
Props to the headline
writer, but one problem:
Not everyone is going to
get the joke.
Be sure the references
are clear enough before
trying the pun.

30. Make sure the writing will make sense to the readers
The headline fits the
specs.
It is factually true.
But does it make sense to
a reader skimming the
page?

31. Check for typos!
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32. Make sure it makes sense. Period.
Gee, wonder why?

33. Check the
headlines!
It’s easy to
assume that
the big text has
been checked
and approved.
Always check
the big type!
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34. It Happens to the Best of Us
Even on deadline, be sure to check the jumps.
Read to the end.
The first few words might be correct . . .
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35. Check for typos, part 2.
We have all had tired
eyes at the end of the
night (or day).
Flipping the page upside
down might have helped
prevent this.
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36. Let’s do the Time Warp again!
Think the proofer was, um,
distracted?
This was the December
2010 issue, not a futuristic
issue of the magazine.
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37. Multiple sets of eyes are better than one set
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38. Check for typos, part 3.
On the
upside, web
errors are
easy to fix.
On the
downside,
you still look
bad.
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39. Giving the wrong impression
I’m sure the BBC did not want to say that Gordon Brown had no legacy.
That is the impression this page left, however.
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40. Check the links!
Look at the top Texas Tribune
post. Note the link . . .
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41. Click: Admin access
I just was lucky to see this.
The Trib put up a story, but created
the Facebook Share link using not
the story link, but the log-in page for
the content management system.
They fixed it within five minutes, but
for those five minutes . . .
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42. Watch websites that might reflect on you
This was not her official website. It still showed up on Gawker.
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43. Homonyms will trip you up
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44. Know your geography
From the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-
Fort Mill is in South Leader:
Carolina. You wouldn’t
FORT MILL, N.C. --- The Rev. John
know that from these Giuliani noticed several boys last
reports: month trading Pokemon cards near
his church's water fountain. Amazed
that children were so spellbound --
and worried about kids collecting
fictional monsters -- he had an idea:
Holy-Man cards."Every month they'll
get a card with a real person on it
who lived a good life,“ says Giuliani,
pastor of Fort Mill's St. Phillip Neri
Catholic Church.
From The Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre, Pa:
FORT MILL, N.C. --- Long first-inning home runs
by Nick Punto and Chase Utley provided most of
the offense in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red
Barons' 7-3 victory against the Charlotte Knights
on Tuesday night.

45. Check. Everything.
From the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle
From National Mortgage News: HSBC Few people can say they placed among
Mortgage Services of Fort Mill, N.C., is
exiting the subprime correspondent channel,
the top 10 in a world championship, but
National Mortgage News has learned. Grovetown resident Nick Jacobson can
add that distinction to his list of
Use Google to be absolutely sure: accomplishments.
HSBC Mortgage Services This summer, Nick spent the better part
of two months practicing and then
maps.google.com
3023 HSBC Way
competing in drum and bugle corps
Fort Mill, SC 29707-7144 contests with Carolina Crown Drum and
(803) 835-6000 Bugle Corps, based in Fort Mill, N.C.

46. Abiline? Abilene? Able-ine?
Never assume
graphic designers
 Whoops. can spell.
Check every bit
of text.
Abilene is
misspelled.

47. Triple-check spellings with multiple options
Some names are going to trip you up. Always
check.
We changed Gonzalez to Gonzales on multiple
publications. A quick Google check confirms
the “S” spelling.

48. Going postal
Our post office never allows text centered
on a postcard’s lower portion.
Double-check everything. Don’t just look
for obvious mistakes.
This would have been a costly printing
error, had we not caught it.
Our postmaster would have sent 1,000
postcards back to us.

49. Editing madness
From The Charlotte Observer:
When submitted to the copy desk, it had
Emily Bellows started
swimming in 1908 in the read:
creeks and millponds around
Beech Island, S.C., a few
miles from Emily Bellows started swimming in 1908 in
Augusta, Ga. the creeks and millponds around Island
Beach, Ga., a few miles from Augusta.

50. Multiple-eye miss
Five people approved this before it went to the printer. None of us have a
tattoo. Or know how to spell tattoo, apparently.

51. Spell-check is our friend

52. Check hyphens
Hyphenation in a
block of ragged-right
text.
Note how this just
looks goofy.
Watch for bad breaks.

53. Check the Web addresses
Note how the Web address is broken
between two lines for no good reason.
This is another instance of bad breaks that
could be avoided to eliminate confusion.
Also: Check every Web address. Call every
phone number. Never trust the copywriters to
be right.

54. Check the hard returns
This hard return was in
a draft of a document,
which was then
imported into a
graphics file.

55. Check the line breaks!

56. Do the math
Compound interest
Basic formula
Future value = Present value x (1 + interest
rate)(number of years)
 or FV = PV(1+i)n

57. Do the math
FV = PV(1+i)n
means that:
FV is a multiple of PV. If you put twice
as much in, you get twice as much
back out.
Time (n) increases FV exponentially. If you
double the time, you get more than twice the

58. Sometimes we get it right . . .
Compounding can make a difference when you save over the long
term. For example, a $1,000 investment, growing at an average
rate of 8% per year, could compound to $1,469 in five years and
$2,159 in ten years!
* Ordinarily, the account would grow 8% a year, or $80.
* After five years, you should have $1,400. But through
compounding, you have $69 more.
* After 10 years, you should have $1,800, but you have $359
more.

59. Sometimes we get it wrong . . .
Let’s look at Jim and Joe, both of whom earn $25,000.
 Jim contributes 3% to the plan and receives a company
contribution of 2% for a total contribution of 5%. Over 20
years Jim would accumulate close to $100,000.
 Joe contributes 6% to the plan and receives a company
contribution of 3.5% for a total contribution of 9.5%. Over
20 years Joe would accumulate about $150,000.
This hypothetical example assumes a return of 8% and does
not represent the return on any particular investment
Corrected to: Jim contributes 3% to the plan and receives a
company contribution of 2% for a total contribution of 5%.
Over 20 years Jim would accumulate close to $60,000.
Joe contributes 6% to the plan and receives a company
contribution of 3.5% for a total contribution of 9.5%. Over
20 years Joe would accumulate about $110,000.

60. Sometimes we get it wrong . . .
Chris, age 30, earns $40,000 a year and hopes to retire at
age 65. He is contributing 4% and has a balance of $50,000
in his Plan account. He is invested conservatively, so his
portfolio earns about 5% a year.
Saving 4%, plus getting a 4% match from his employer,
Chris will have about $259,300 total, or $10,370 a year to
spend in retirement. Not quite what he needs.
Chris decides to increase his contribution rate by two
percentage points for a total of 6% to get the full company
match of 6%. With this boost, he will have $870,100 total, or
$34,810 annually for his retirement expenses. That’s
$610,800 more when he retires, and $24,440 a year more to
spend.

61. Lessons to learn
 Be skeptical.
 Check everything.
 Never trust Word’s spell check.
 Walk away. Then proof again.
 Find a reliable backup proofreader.
 Read slowly. Out loud. Backwards.
 In doubt? Find an in-house expert.
 Know your weaknesses.
 Go somewhere quiet to proofread.

62. Are your eyes playing tricks on you?

63. Pay attention to details on every page
Wisdom is not enough:
Relections on leadership and teams

64. You might be surprised

65. Use logic

66. Designers, know thyselves …
and what’s in the paper
“A designer handling sports pages one night last week
caught a big problem on A1 when the papers came up:
One of the two flag keys, a big one covering 70
percent of the width of the page, touted a story in
Sports about the removal of trees from the outfield at
Target Field.
“Problem was: Sports didn't have room for the story
and didn't run it.
“We should have caught the error in the slotting and
proofing, but going 100 mph we missed it.”
- Ben Welter, copy desk chief, Star Tribune

67. Is this what music has come to?
Indie folk singer Haley
Bonar already has recorded
songs for her next album,
“Golder,” but needs money to
cover the cost of touring as she
promotes tit.

68. Find a style and use it

69. AP? CMS? APA?
What’s your style?
Luverne
CHIT CHAT’S FAMILY RESTAURANT
920 South Kniss Ave.
Luverne, Minnesota 56156
507-283-4458
Located one-half blocks north of Interstate Highway
90 in Luverne

70. Maintain consistency
Luverne
CHIT CHAT’S FAMILY RESTAURANT
920 S. Kniss Avenue
Luverne, MN 56156
507-283-4458
Half a block north of Interstate 90
in Luverne

71. Know your left from your right
Before officers could
get the handcuffs on
him, Jackie Badguye
tussled briefly with
police, which resulted
in a gash on his left
cheek and a black
and blue right eye.

72. To summarize
Take nothing for granted
Designers and writers can miss the obvious
as well as the subtle
Pay attention when referring to all
of your document
Don’t embarrass your publication (or your
sources)
Have a sense of style

73. Time-honored tips and tricks
Pressroom guys have eyes
Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty
Think backwards
Know your weaknesses
Listen to that little voice in your head
The devil really is in the details

74. Resources
Purdue University: http://
owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/561/01/
University of North Carolina: http://
www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/
proofread.html
Merriam-Webster proofreading symbols: http://
www.merriam-webster.com/mw/table/
proofrea.htm

75. Just for fun
ApostropheAbuse.com or Like them on Facebook
For Every Time You Misuse an Apostrophe, I’m Going to Remove a
Finger - Like them on Facebook

76. And of course: Our own Charles Apple
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77. Panel discussion; many thanks to:
Special thanks and extra credit to Melody
Sanders, Kirsten Efird, Luci Calanor, Jack
Pointer, Laura Johnson, Greg Matthews,
Sherrie Voss Matthews, John Braun, Charles
Apple, Gina Lamb, Lynn Gosnell, Gawker
Media and The Huffington Post for the
bloopers.