Proofreading
Cleaning Up the Mess
Careless
Writing Leaves Behind
by Phil Hanson
If you want people to take your business
seriously, you must ensure that the text appearing on every
line of every page on your Web site is error free. Even
one mistake, if allowed to remain, marks you as an amateur in
the mind of every sharp-eyed reader who catches it. Numerous
mistakes turn away potential customers.
Proofreading
a page involves examining every word, in every line of text,
that appears on the page. The purpose of proofreading is
to detect, and correct, errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar
and typography, among other things.
Those
other things include capitalization, abbreviations, spacing,
margins, style inconsistencies, omissions, redundancies, misused
words, disagreement of subject and verb, possessives and plurals
and factual errors.
Because
a proofreader must correct any errors without making new ones,
I have a number of reference books at my disposal, including
a dictionary, a thesaurus, several style manuals, a couple of
English usage books and a number of writer's manuals and handbooks.
I refer to them often.
When
I begin a proofreading assignment the first thing I do is create
a style sheet for the subject Web site. This allows me to apply
the same formatting and style conventions to every page on the
site, thus ensuring accuracy, consistency and uniformity.
Once
the job has been completed to your satisfaction and mine (and
with your express approval and permission), I'll put a link
to your URL on my Portfolio page. This not only gives
me a chance to showcase my work, but it gives your site additional
exposure, too. More traffic plus more credibility equals more
sales.
Copyright
© 2002 – 2005 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
You'll
find complete information for ordering my proofreading services
at the Order Desk.
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