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