✦ Task type · Language work
Proofreading, for the mistakes software is confident about
Every remaining error in your copy has already been approved by a spellchecker. That is what makes them the ones customers notice.
The errors worth paying for are the ones that pass every automated check: a preposition that is technically correct and unidiomatic, a register that is a shade too formal, a phrase that means something else in one market.
What to put in the public brief
- The language and the market, which are not the same
- Roughly how much text
- What it is for: web copy, an email, an app string
- Whether they are correcting or commenting
Keep the copy private. It is usually unreleased.
What to put in the private instructions
Give the copy and one paragraph you are happy with
The reference paragraph is what stops a proofreader flattening your voice into neutral.
Say what must not change
Brand names, product names, legally reviewed sentences, anything with a claim in it. A well-meant improvement to a claim line creates a compliance problem.
Ask them to mark errors and preferences separately
You need to know which changes are wrong-versus-right and which are how-we-would-say-it. Both are useful; only one is mandatory.
Ask about the market, not the grammar
"Is there anything here that reads as translated or foreign" finds more than any request for a grammar check.
Proof worth requiring
Ask for
The corrected text with changes marked, a short list of preference notes kept separate, and the country they read from.
Do not ask for
A rewrite. If the copy needs rewriting, that is a different task at a different price, and a proofread that arrives as a rewrite is impossible to review against the original.
When this task type is the wrong tool
If the text is not yet in the target language, you need translation or translation review first; proofreading a machine draft without saying so gets you a tidied machine draft.
If the copy is legally significant, this does not substitute for review by someone with liability for the outcome.
Common questions
How is this different from translation review?
Translation review checks a rendering against a source. Proofreading checks copy that is already in its final language against the way that language is actually used in a market. The same sentence can be perfectly translated and still read as foreign, and only the second task catches that.
What reward is fair?
Six to fifteen dollars for a page or so. Price up for a market with few registered speakers rather than by word count, because availability is what sets the cost here.
Should I ask for corrections or comments?
Both, marked separately. A correction you can apply; a comment tells you whether something is wrong or merely not how anyone would say it, and those need different decisions from you.
Will they change my brand voice?
Not if you say what it is. Give one paragraph of existing copy you are happy with as the reference, and ask them to preserve it. Without that they will normalise toward neutral, which is the default failure of every proofreading brief.
Thinking of taking this task?
The same job, from the other side. Rewards are set by the poster, so treat these as the range this task type usually sits in rather than a promise.
- Usually pays
- $6 to $15 per page
- You need
- First-language fluency in the target market
- Proof expected
- Corrected text with changes marked, and preferences listed separately
Correct, do not rewrite. Keep the voice in the reference paragraph the poster supplies, and separate what is wrong from what you would merely say differently.
Create a worker accountBrief a proofread
Set the reward, the language and the market. Workers reserve a spot; your copy stays private until they do.
Post this task