What does a proofreader do? The proofreader is usually the last line of defence to check your document or publication for accuracy and consistency before publishing or circulation, and as part of the proofreading I will normally carry out the following.

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A proofreader's normal duties

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• read the text word by word for sense

• ensure accurate and consistent styles of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and hyphenation have been used

• check the consistency of spelling of authors' and contributors' names

• check page, chapter, and section numbers are consecutively numbered and ordered

• check page running headlines and footlines are correct

• ensure table, figure, and photo captions are correct and match text references to them

• check or insert page cross-references in the text

• check or insert page numbers listed in the table of contents and lists of tables, figures, and photos in the preliminary pages

• watch for poor end-of-line word breaks that might cause confusion or offence, e.g. ther-apist (not the-rapist) and ana-lyst (not anal-yst), and divided words ending recto pages

• check footnotes or endnotes to the note cues or indicators in the text

• check works cited in the text to the references or bibliography section (but not the validity or accuracy of the references themselves) and ensure they are of a consistent style

• eliminate or alert the publisher or author to ‘widows’ (short last line of a paragraph at the top of a page) and ‘orphans’ (short first line of a paragraph at the bottom of a page).