Web Site Proofreading

Professional Web Site Proofreading

Proofreading for Web sites is a specialty that goes beyond the standards required for proofreading the printed page.

With over 25 years of experience proofreading novels, periodicals, legal documents, advertisements, Web sites, contracts and spreadsheets, Christopher Merrill combines a knowledge of the written word with knowledge of html coding to help you clean and correct your copy in accordance with guidelines set down in The Chicago Manual of Style.

(Remember that I cannot read your mind! Write out all instructions clearly, and follow up by verifying that they have been completed in accordance with you wishes.)

Here are some additional tips on tracking your changes:

 

How to Verify that Your Corrections Have been Made

  • First, PRINT OUT the pages (don't just check them on the screen). To print up pages of the website for your marking up, you should be able to use the PRINT PREVIEW function in Internet Explorer to adjust the pages to LANDSCAPE format (so as to not lose the right side of the page).

  • Then, mark up (or describe in detail) the changes that you want made to the site.

  • FAX the changes to me at 773-409-5411 (or email them). See more on how to submit web site changes.

  • Keep a record of each change you request, and then verify by checking each correction one by one after it has been completed. If you see errors, then repeat the process over and over and over until it is correct (it's not unusual to have to do 2-3 rounds before everything will be clean).

  • Above all, verify that the contact info is correct. It's perhaps the biggest mistake web site owners make: failing to check and double-check their contact information on the Web site. Remember, if your contact information in incorrect on your Web site, you will loose potential customers when they contact you and receive no response: worse, they will remember your site as unresponsive, and blacklist it!
 

How Proofreading Works

No proofreader is always 100% accurate. Many publishing houses use multiple proofreaders on the same job to ensure accuracy.

Proofreading is always performed on several levels.The measure of the quality of proofreading is in the percentage of errors missed and in the overall quality of the types of errors found within a given deadline.

In terms of quality and timeliness, I recommend to all of my clients that they ask themselves the following question:"Do I want it right, or do I want it right now?"

Strong proofreaders always work to strike a balance between the need for high quality and the need to provide the finished product within an established deadline. While proofreading the same material over and over would yield the highest quality possible, projects must be completed within a given amount of time, or nothing would ever appear in print — so an appropriate compromise between quality and timeliness must be struck.

Questions? Please contact me.