The Importance of Proofreading in the Workplace

Joanna Arias, Valerie Flores, Paulina Gonzalez, Teresa M. Serna

May 13, 2020

Acme Industries
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Abstract

This paper will consist of the importance of proofreading in the workplace. Proofreading is the
final stage of publishing process. However, most people tend to skip this stage. The issue of this
can lead to damage in the workplace. A damage that cannot be repaired, so easy to effect future
plans. Failing to proofread has been the reason for companies to lose money and therefore the
one who is responsible of doing this task can get fired and end up with no job. It just takes a
single letter in a place it is not supposed to go, and the company can lose up to $20,000.
Publishing something that was not intended to, has a lot of consequences. Practice makes
everything better and easier, therefore it should be required to proofread every document that is
written. Proofread by different people and have different points of view. If this is not possible
than another way to proofread is by reading the whole document or article out loud. These are
just some ways that can help and benefit in the future. Proofreading requires time however taking
the time can benefit the business positively. Having a well written document can say a lot from
the writer and it looks professional. Taking the extra time is necessary.

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Table of Contents

Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii
Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iii
Preface........................................................................................................................................... iiv
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Analysis........................................................................................................................................... 2
Recommendations ........................................................................................................................... 4
Perspectives and Solutions ......................................................................................................... 4
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 5
Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 6
References ....................................................................................................................................... 7

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Preface

Proofreading skills can improve utilizing well-documented strategies that work. The goal is to
reach a hundred percent error free copy with all business documents. Such a goal will only boost
the quality of your writing and encourage your credibility. However, errors can easily be
overlooked. Be sure to check for minor errors that are difficult to spot while revising the
document. Even if you find errors effectively, it also reminds you of using revision strategies to
make sure quality is good and ready to publish. Reviewing takes extra time that most businesses
don’t have. The primary explanation for re-reading activities falls through the cracks because of
the lack of time put into the document or article. Revise and rewrite your draft.

• Rephrase your sentences for clarity.

• Look for grammatical and mechanical errors.
• Add or remove information.
• Organize paragraphs.

Proofreading can be complicated to do for some people. However, practice can make everyone
better at it. Using strategies can help create a good paper. The writer must be clear and concise
with the message being sent out. Readers do not want to use their time trying and not understand
the paper. Therefore, it is important to get to know the audience and be prepare for anything.
Once the audience is well known it can be easier to style the document and present it in a way
that the audience will be entertained, and the topic mentioned in the document or article is well
explained.

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Introduction

The presumption that accuracy is a main concern by employers is equally and tiredly widespread
among the typists. However, it will become apparent at one moment that managers will not
consider the job progress, but rather, they see an individual delivering the finished product. As
pointed out in numerous studies, the real necessity of employers is to proofread and correct the
errors most typists make (Abbott, 2016).

There are many times where they pass one of the important steps about writing, proofreading.
Therefore, this can cause a lot of consequences and affect your company or the company you are
working at. They could lose a lot of money that is able to do other projects or businesses.
Employers need to proofread every document they write and will be publishing. In fact, this is
the final stage of the publishing process, be it digital or not, which ensures that everything is
present and correct, and it says exactly what they want to communicate to others. It does not only
affect the employer that oversees what is published or sending the document but the whole
agency or company as well. It can damage:

• Reputation of the company.

• Money wise, loss money because of misunderstanding.
• Ending up with no job.

It is important to make sure that everything makes sense to all readers. Users don’t tend to stop
understanding a text because it is written too simply, they stop understanding when it’s complex.
Sometimes what makes sense to you as an author might not be clear to the audience. Therefore,
it is important to know your audience. This is the first step before even writing a document, by
knowing the audience there is a better chance that the message will be better understood.
Another benefit about this concept is that it helps you, as the writer, to ensure consistency.
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Analysis

In any type of business, you may work at, not proofreading will have an effect. For this not to
happen it is important to follow some recommendations to improve proofreading. One way that
can help and work the best is reading the document out loud or asking for someone else to read
it. We tend to not notice our own mistakes and having a different perspective can improve our
writing. The following are some damage that companies have had because of not proofreading.

Back in 2006, the Italian airline, Alitalia Airlines mistakenly advertised $39, rather than $39,000,
business class flights. The airline wanted to cancel them; the public outrage forced the company
to pay the unintended discount. As a result, the airlines lost over $7 million. A simple misplace
of a comma cost this airline millions. The individual who made this careless mistake did not take
the time to carefully examine all aspects of the document.

Demands in proofreading

Businesses, whether small or big, always want to save money and never want to be put in a
situation to lose money. While sharing information from a business, checking the small things
like misspelled words to grammar can have a big impact. A company in Australia called Penguin
are victims of failure to proofread. In 2010, this company created and released over 7,000 copies
of a new pasta cookbook. After finding out that the book had a misspelling of a single word, all
the copies had to be destroyed. This cost the company over $20,000. The result was an urgent
recall of all published books and thousands of dollars spent on public relations activities in order
to try and reassure the public that the misspelling was an unintentional proofreading mistake.

We all remember the yellow pages, where they used to advertise different business and agencies.
Well a travel agency in California had to sue them. The California-based travel agency decided
to market its services in the phone book. However, they never imagined that this was going to
bring new customers but not the kind of clients the company was hoping to attract. On the final
printing advertising instead of writing they specialized in exotic destination they ended up
writing they specialized on “erotic” destinations. On consequence of this they receive customers
they usually don’t get. An exotic vacation became X-rated. When the company realized what had
happened, they decided to sue them. The yellow pages offered to waive its $230 monthly listing

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fee, but they still sued them for $10 million. They ended up losing $10 million plus $230
monthly.

These are just some examples of companies who have lost a lot of money for their mistakes there
are many more. That’s when you realize that it could have been prevented just by reading it
twice. Sometimes it’s not until it affects us personally that it makes a change and people tend to
start practicing this stage.

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Recommendations

These are a few recommendations that will benefit to bettering ones proofreading skills.

• Align with company style standards

• Remove excess words
• Check sentence structure
• Check grammar
• Verify facts and numbers
• Read out loud

Some businesses might have a certain style for their documents, it is important to follow those
styles. Make sure to have the appropriate font style and size, line spacing, margins, etc. This will
help ensure the consistency in the document. Remove any excess words that are not necessary.
Use words that help get straight to the point without overflowing. This will help the document be
concise and direct. Check for the sentence structure, making sure there are no run-on sentences.
Review the proper punctuation is being used. Make sure each sentence structure includes the
appropriate set up. Grammatical errors are a common mistake that occurs. Review the documents
and ensure the correct word choice is being used properly. Having grammatical errors can cause
a person or business to appear unprofessional. Double check and verify all facts and numbers
being mentioned are correct. All details with important facts, dates, times, and names must be
correct. This allows the document to be valuable and useful. Lastly, it is important to always
have a second or even third person check. At times, we tend not to notice some of our own
mistakes. Having another person read your work will allow a new fresh perspective.

Perspectives and Solutions

Although failing to proofread has indeed caused trouble towards companies, it did serve as
experience to enhance new methods and solutions in order to ensure that these mistakes do not
happen again. Rather than observing the issue in failing to proofread as a catastrophe, it would be
best to consider it an obstacle. Now, there could be new effective strategies to proofread
documents and ensure its credibility and reliability later in the future,

Strategies that can be effective for proofreading:

• Allow time to pass, or get some rest after completing a document in order to look at it
in a fresh and cleansed mind
• Print out copies of the document and have other people revise it, this provides a
different perspective
• Read document backwards, sentence-by-sentence
• Revise an immense number of times

These methods so far have proven effective to make sure a document looks professional before
being turned in to its destination. (Koerber, 2019)

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Conclusion

We all know that not everyone is good at this therefore, there are different ways to improve when
it comes to proofreading. The best way is by practicing, when a step is done more than twice
then this usually becomes a routine. When proofreading becomes something normal and
necessary every writing will improve and have good results. It is important to get used to reading
every writing more than twice that way we will notice any errors that were missed when we read
the first time. Reading it out loud is also a great strategy to get this done. On the other hand,
there are errors that the writer might not notice, and this can help by asking someone else to read
their work and analyze it. Having different perspectives can improve any writing. Let’s prevent
mistakes that can cost the company’s future money or reputation with beginning to use the
strategies provided to proofread all documents.

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Executive Summary

Proofreading tends to be a problem when it comes to publishing any article or document. Simply
because to most people it is a complicated task, they might feel that their writing is always
missing something else or they overthink too much and this makes things harder. Many people
fail to do this stage of writing. Therefore, when it comes to a professional job it damages their
companies by losing a lot of money and the one who is responsible to oversee this stage can lose
their job. Publishing anything that was not intended to, has consequences. There have been many
companies that have loss as much as $20,000 just because they misspelled a word. However, this
can be prevented by different ways. One strategy that is well known and effective is by reading
out loud any writing and more than once, this will help you to notice any mistake you might have
missed the first time. In fact, it is recommended that if it’s a long document then to take some
break before re-reading it, therefore, the mind will have rested and be ready to analyze it better.
Another thing that is recommended is to ask someone else to read it. Therefore, they provide a
different perspective and that improves the writing. Everything takes practice and once it
becomes part of your writing then it becomes easier. Let’s make proofreading part of the routine
when it comes to writing either an important document or an article.

It is important to make sure that everything makes sense to all readers. Users don’t tend to stop
understanding a text because it is written too simply, they stop understanding when it’s complex.
Sometimes what makes sense to you as an author might not be clear to the audience. Therefore,
it is important to know your audience. Know to who this document or article is directed to. This
is the first step before even writing a document, by knowing the audience there is a better chance
that the message will be better understood. Another benefit about this concept is that it helps you,
as the writer, to ensure consistency. Let’s prevent any mistake there could be that could cost in
the future and start proofreading.

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References

Churchill, L. (2020). Why proofreading is so important | ONS Digital. Retrieved 12 May 2020,

from https://digitalblog.ons.gov.uk/2016/10/11/why-proofreading-is-so-important/

Koerber, D. (2019). Editing and Proofreading Tips for Writers. Editage Cactus. Retrieved from

https://www.editage.com/all-about-publication/english-editing/proofreading-tips-and-

techniques.html

Olding, R. (2010). “Penguin Cookbook Calls for 'Freshly Ground Black People'.” 19 Apr. 2010,

www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/19/penguin-cook-book.

The Importance of Editing and Proofreading before Manuscript Submission - Enago Academy.

(2020). Retrieved 10 May 2020, from https://www.enago.com/academy/the-importance-

of-editing-and-proofreading-before-manuscript-submission/.

“10 Risks You Run If You Don't Proofread Your Manuscript.” Live Write Thrive, 2 Feb. 2014,

www.livewritethrive.com/2014/02/03/10-risks-you-run-if-you-dont-proofread/.

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Reflection-White Paper
The semester ended with writing a white paper with my group. In this white paper we had to
research and write about the importance of proofreading. Writing this assignment, we were
taught how to create a template for this paper. Which was interesting because the template was
created to be concise for the reader. This template I will definitely use in the future. The group
and I researched proofreading in the workplace and would brainstorm strategies to improve this
ongoing problem. Prior to working on this assignment, never really knew what a white paper
was. This assignment would teach me how to research and strategize problems. Knowing how to
create a certain template, writing, and strategizing problems will be something some employers
would ask of their employees. Having the knowledge of doing so will benefit me for my future
employer.