Who Can Be A Freelance Editor Or Proofreader
nyone can be a Freelance Those editors have a great grasp
Editor or Proofreader. That of the language.
is, anyone with a good
grasp of the English language, or Be careful though. There are many
native language if you want to confusing properties of the
edit non-US documents. English language. There are many
different parts to a sentence, a
Do you cringe at typos and paragraph, and an entire paper.
grammatical errors in newspapers, It’s important to know about
magazine articles, Internet spelling and capitalization; but
articles and web sites? Do you it’s just as important to know
find yourself correcting the when to use a comma versus a
errors as you read along? Then semi-colon, and what exactly a
being a freelance editor or dangling modifier is.
proofreader might be the
home-based business for you. If you think that just because
you use a program that checks
It’s true that many freelance spelling and grammar, you’re all
editors have college degrees with set, you’re dead wrong. These
an English Major. Or at the very programs are limited in their
least, they’ve taken a good capabilities. They can’t check a
number of English classes. writer’s intonation, intended
However, having a degree is not a purpose, or desired outcome.
requirement for being a freelance These programs often check to
editor. The only real requirement ensure a word is spelled
is a good, no a great, grasp of correctly, but can’t determine if
the English language. There are it is the proper word to use in a
many successful freelance editors statement.
today, who have taken some
classes, but have no degree. For instance, the sentence below
was marked as correct using a I am in no way stating you
spelling/grammar-checking shouldn’t use these programs. I
program: use them all the time, but only
as a backup resource. I depend on
Incorrect: The birds were in each my own knowledge of the language
of there nests. to edit a document. Once my
Correct: The birds were in each corrections are noted, I then run
of their nests. the document through the
spell/grammar checker. Sometimes
You can probably see the error, it finds things that I missed;
but these so-called “expert” sometimes it finds things that
programs cannot. And if you can’t are correct, yet marks them
see the difference, then walk, no wrong. But they are very good at
run to the nearest door! finding statements written with a
passive voice. For that I give
Seriously though, I read an them credit.
article awhile back that proposed
only using programs with Yet, I digress. If you are
spelling/grammar checkers. The considering becoming a freelance
article indicated that this would editor or proofreader, I applaud
be all you need to put a you. There is nothing like the
professional document on the satisfaction of knowing you’ve
Internet – document meaning helped someone provide a
article or web page. professional (edited) document
for publication.
About the Author:
Julie Jessen, owner of A1 Secretarial Service, http://www.a1secretarial.com, has been providing editing services to clients for the past 5 years. She has helped many clean up their writing in order to present a polished document to the public. She is experienced in editing articles, e-books, résumés, web pages, and other miscellaneous documents.
Source: www.isnare.com |
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