Choosing a New Path

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”

― Rumi

Hello there! Here’s a little bit about why I am excited to be a proofreader and so glad I am finally getting to do it. Some might find it unusual to be drawn to helping others by something as overlooked as proofreading, but I truly feel that the accurate representation of a writer’s work is a worthy undertaking. It has been quite a journey to get here, but for me, it has all led to where I want to be. As Asha Tyson put it:

“Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don’t think you’ve lost time. There is no short-cutting to life. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time.”

You may have noticed the theme of cherry blossoms. They are a symbol of rebirth and renewal representing the shift in career and lifestyle that I’ve chosen to make. Proofreading is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and despite a rather winding road to get here, it is a calling that I believe plays to my strengths. I have worked in property management, law firms, and restaurants in various roles, and each new challenge has taught me invaluable lessons and helped inform my future goals: to help others and to be my own boss. Quite often, I was the coworker, friend, or relative that others would come to for that one last look at their content, and I always enjoyed using my skills in that way. Though my professional path hasn’t always been in an office, years of working in customer service have not only provided me with excellent communication skills but strengthened my exacting attention to detail (a trait that has been both my blessing and my burden 🙄). In obtaining my degrees in both Legal Assisting and English, I discovered I enjoyed working independently in an online setting. I quickly got the hang of the discipline and self-motivation it takes to complete web-based courses, and there the perfectionist in me thrived. Freelance proofreading is a perfect fit for me, and I can finally take all of my grammar policing and use it for good instead of evil—I mean pestering friends and colleagues. I look forward to meeting and collaborating with all of you writers out there to make your writing shine!

Why We Respect a Clean Public Restroom

Have you ever gone into a restaurant that seems upscale and classy only to find the restroom trashed as if a high school sports team just had their end-of-season victory party in there? More often than not, it has made you think to yourself, “Hey, this place might not be that clean…I wonder what the kitchen looks like…” It’s the kind of impression that could potentially taint your whole dining experience. Writing that is full of typos and misspellings can leave that same sort of perception in a reader’s mind, thoughts like, “If this person can’t get these small details right, how am I going to trust their opinion/product/research?” A poor first impression can lead to a cascading loss of faith in you and your content. Professional proofreading can alleviate that potential lack of confidence that errors can bring about in the mind of your audience. Just a simple misplacement of quotation marks could leave your reader in doubt of your reliability (if a product was listed as a “vegan” meat alternative, for example). So, continuing with the restaurant metaphor, if you’d like to make a good first impression either in your establishment or in your writing, reassure yourself that it’s cleaned up before anyone sees it 😉.

The Grammar Creep, a.k.a., More About Why We Need Proofreaders

With the fluidity of writing today in social media, blogs, email, and mobile communication, certain standards of composition have become (understandably) more relaxed. Instant on-the-go communication has become so much a part of our lives that those relaxed standards inevitably creep into what ought to be more professional writing. We have all been burned by autocorrect or depended on spellcheck and been disappointed when we look back and see (too often after the work has been viewed by others) mistakes we wish we had caught. The truth is, we become somewhat blind to our own mistakes because we, as writers, know what we intend to say (even proofreaders have people check their writing, I know I do). Effective communication relies on smooth, readable text that does not detract from the writer’s message. Too easily, a reader can be jerked out of their immersion in a narrative, or worse, misconstrue or even misunderstand the author’s intended meaning due to typos, misspellings, or improperly placed punctuation. Additionally, mistakes such as these can be costly to one’s image as a professional, and clear, unblemished text can make the difference between being heard and looking incompetent or even foolish. Comprehensible content is essential, or as one editor queries, “Why bother publishing your thoughts or your findings if they are so poorly conveyed, so ungrammatical or so disorganized, as to be impenetrable to your colleagues?” -Sylvia Hunter. Proofreading, when done professionally, can rescue the potentially “impenetrable” and make that work represent what its author intended, without the distraction caused by the creep of modern tendencies in communication.