A fine article by Michael J. Leclerc: Genealogical Writing: Proofreading Proofreading is the process of reviewing a manuscript to minimize errors. One or more copies of the manuscript are printed out and given to readers. This step is crucial to the writing process, and it is important that it is not skipped. The term proofreading comes from the old days of printing presses with moveable type. Typesetters would take a manuscript and put lead type into trays for the presses. A few proof copies would be given back to be checked for errors. Readers would then mark up the pages and send them back to the typesetters for corrections. Typesetters would occasionally put a piece of type into the tray upside-down or backwards. Spacing bars might be put in the wrong place. Letters or words were occasionally transposed. Difficulty reading the original manuscript might lead to the wrong letter being set. The advent of personal computers has made some of these errors obsolete. For example, one rarely sees characters accidentally inverted in computer manuscripts. But others will still be made. Multiple reviews of a manuscript are usually necessary. One will review for formatting and spacing issues, one will look for typographical errors, etc. The more eyes that review a manuscript, the better the chances are of catching mistakes. Articles for American Ancestors, for example, might be reviewed by as many as eight people. eNews is reviewed by a dozen individuals in addition to the editors. While many errors are caught by multiple individuals, each person usually catches things that no other reader caught. Professional proofreaders use a standard system of marks when reading text to indicate corrections to be made. The carat symbol (^) is used to indicate a place where text should be inserted. The pound sign (#) is used to show a place where space should be inserted. A slash mark (/) is used to separate two or more marks in a row. You can see some proofreader’s marks from Merriam-Webster at www.merriam-webster.com/mw/table/proofrea.htm. Can you proofread your own writing? Absolutely! Should you also have others proofread your work? Absolutely! As the author, you may catch things others don’t see. That said, just as one cannot edit one’s own writing completely, one cannot proofread one’s own work completely. Authors will easily gloss over errors unintentionally that will stick out to other readers. Your local community college, university, or adult education program may offer courses in proofreading. They may be offered individually, or as part of a longer course in editing or writing. One thing you must prepare yourself for is that no matter how many people proofread your document, the minute you publish something you will find an error that wasn’t caught. Rare is the book or magazine that doesn’t have some type of error in it. You will also discover that many people jump to give you feedback about errors. Some will present it to you in a friendly tone to assist you. Others will come across as self-important know-it-alls who criticize others to inflate their own self-worth. Kindly thank the former, and ignore the latter. Include the important step of proofreading in your writing, and your final product will always be the best it can be.