What does a proofreader do?

The proofreader is a profession of extreme importance and with a lot of demand in the market. He can work in several areas, whether in the press or media, in publishers, communication companies, translation companies, among others. It is the professional in charge of reviewing the written material with the aim of giving it correction, clarity, conciseness and harmony, adding value to the text. It seeks to make the text easy to understand for the recipient or reader.

This craft requires that the person not only know how to perform grammatical correction mechanics, but also a complete intervention in the text in order to improve it. At the same time, he must work in concert with the author of the original text, so that the proposed interventions respect his original desire and do not change his intention.

The phased reviews

In order for every detail to be observed, the reviewer processes the reviews in phases:

Primary Review – It is the text preparation. Ordering in paragraphs, chapters, etc. in order to reach the final format that will be consumed by the reader. This review work focuses more on spelling and syntactic aspects. 

Secondary Review – It focuses on verbal expressions, exaggerations, the use of euphony (search for harmonious sounds in the combination of words), but mainly on colloquial language, textual intelligibility, syntax and explanation of ideas. All aspects of the language are deeply observed.

Final Review – A final reading of the writing is carried out, when the slightest weaknesses that may have remained are observed. The last details are checked before the text is delivered for publication.

The types of reviews

There are also four types of interventions that can occur during the revision process and interaction with the text producer:

Resolutive review: The reviewer intervenes directly in the text, with the aim of filling gaps and solving problems, whether formal or content.

Indicative review: The reviewer indicates the proposed changes, but does not make the changes, leaving it up to the author of the text to accept the suggestions or not.

Interactive review: The reviewer conducts a dialogue with the author. It usually occurs in situations where greater reflection is needed on parts of the text that may have become obscure or that can be improved according to the reviewer's vision. Therefore, there is interaction between the parties in order to reach the best result.

Classification review: The reviewer uses a classification to differentiate and highlight different types of inadequacies.

Good reading

Sidney Matias
Casa de Livro