Overview
Proofreading is the lightest level of editing. It assumes your argument, structure and sentences are already the way you want them, and it corrects only objective surface errors: spelling, grammar, punctuation, typos, and obvious inconsistencies such as "organisation" on one page and "organization" on the next. It does not rephrase sentences for style, reorganize paragraphs or question your reasoning.
Because the intervention is small and every change is visible, proofreading is also the level most university policies allow for assessed student work. Several UK universities publish proofreading codes that let a third party identify spelling, grammar, punctuation and formatting errors, but not rewrite text for meaning, rearrange material, check calculations or add references. We work to that boundary by default for coursework, dissertations and theses, and switch to a comments-only mode if your institution requires errors to be flagged rather than corrected.
If you are not sure proofreading is enough, a short sample check helps: when most of our notes are about awkward or unclear sentences rather than slips, your document probably needs copyediting or line editing first, and proofreading afterward.
Who it’s for and the problems it solves
This is for you if you are…
- Students submitting an essay, dissertation or thesis who want surface errors caught within their university's proofreading rules
- Researchers with a manuscript that has already been language-edited and now needs a final check before submission or after typesetting
- Authors checking page proofs from a publisher against the accepted manuscript
- Professionals and institutions finalizing reports, policy briefs or conference papers where small errors undermine credibility
Common problems we help with
- You have read your document so many times that you no longer see what is actually on the page
- Your grammar checker flags hundreds of items, many of them wrong for academic English, and you cannot tell which to trust
- Late revisions left fragments: a sentence with two verbs, a deleted word still referred to, a figure number that no longer matches
- Your department allows proofreading but not editing, and you need someone who knows the difference
- The deadline is close and you need a focused check rather than a rewrite
What’s included — and what isn’t
Included
- Spelling, including consistent US or UK spelling as you choose, and field-specific terms checked against how you use them
- Grammar errors: subject–verb agreement, tense slips, article errors (a/an/the), incomplete sentences, misplaced modifiers
- Punctuation: comma splices, apostrophes, hyphens and en dashes in ranges (pp. 12–18), quotation marks, serial comma consistency
- Typographical errors: doubled or missing words, stray spaces, wrong capitalization, broken italics
- Consistency checks on numbers, abbreviations and headings, and on table, figure and section numbering
- In-text citations checked against the reference list for obvious mismatches (author spelling, year), flagged in comments
- Margin comments where a sentence is ambiguous, so you can decide how to fix it
- A comments-only mode for work where your institution does not allow direct corrections
Not included
- Rewording sentences for style, flow or concision — that is line editing or copyediting
- Changing your argument, structure, content or conclusions, or suggesting what to add or remove
- Checking facts, calculations, statistics, formulas or code
- Full reference-list formatting to a citation style (available as a separate referencing check)
- Translating passages you drafted in another language
What you receive
- Tracked-changes file
- Your document (Word, or PDF annotations where editing is not possible) with every correction shown in Track Changes, so nothing is altered invisibly and you accept or reject each change.
- Clean copy on request
- For professional and publication documents, a second version with changes accepted. For assessed student work we recommend you accept changes yourself, so the final file is your decision.
- Query comments
- Short margin notes where something looks wrong but has more than one fix, such as a sentence whose meaning is ambiguous or a citation year that differs from the reference list.
- Short summary note
- A brief list of recurring patterns (for example, missing articles before countable nouns) so you can avoid them in future writing.
How it works
Send the file and brief
Share the document, the spelling variant (US or UK), any style guide, and — for student work — your university or department proofreading policy if one exists.
Confirm the level
We skim a sample. If the text needs heavier editing than proofreading, we tell you before starting rather than silently doing more or less than you asked.
Proofreading pass
We read the full document for surface errors, then run a separate consistency sweep for numbering, abbreviations, headings and spelling variants.
Return and questions
You receive the tracked file and summary note, and can ask about any correction or comment.
How we proofread
- Two different passes
- A slow reading pass for language errors, then a separate mechanical pass for numbering, cross-references, headings and repeated items — different errors are caught in different kinds of reading.
- Tracked changes throughout
- All corrections are made with Word's Track Changes on; nothing is accepted silently, so you and, if needed, your supervisor can see exactly what was changed.
- Comments instead of guesses
- Where a correction would change meaning, we ask in a margin comment rather than choosing for you.
- Policy-aware mode
- For assessed work, we follow the stricter of your institution's rules and our own default: identify and correct surface errors only, flag unclear sentences without rewriting them.
- Tool support, human decisions
- Spell-check and consistency tools help us find candidates for correction, but every change is a human judgement made in context.
What a proofreading change looks like
Proofreading corrections are small and objective. They fix what is wrong without changing how you chose to say it. If a sentence is correct but clunky, a proofreader leaves it alone or, at most, notes it; a line editor would rewrite it.
- Before: "The datas was collected from three hospital's between 2019-2021." After: "The data were collected from three hospitals between 2019 and 2021."
- Before: "As shown in Table 3 the effect were strongest in rural sites." After: "As shown in Table 3, the effect was strongest in rural sites."
- Left unchanged but commented: "It is important to note that this is something that should be considered." Comment: "Grammatically correct; you may want to say what should be considered."
Proofreading and university rules
Universities differ. Some publish a code of practice listing what a proofreader may do (identify spelling, grammar, punctuation and formatting errors; point out unclear sentences or repeated words) and what they may not (rewrite for meaning, rearrange passages, alter figures, check calculations or code, translate, or add references). A few do not allow third-party proofreading of assessed work at all. Many ask you to declare it on submission and to keep earlier drafts.
We therefore ask for your policy before we start, work within it, and keep changes visible. Keep our tracked file with your drafts: if you are ever asked to show how your work developed, it documents exactly what we did.
When proofreading is the wrong choice
Proofreading an unfinished draft wastes effort: sentences you later rewrite will need checking again. If you still plan to restructure chapters, respond to supervisor comments or cut words, do that first. If English is an additional language for you and you want sentence-level improvements, consider English language editing where your rules allow it.
What the work can look like
Illustrative example — fictional data
Illustrative excerpt: proofread paragraph with comments
A master's student in public health sends a 14,000-word dissertation with a university policy that allows correction of spelling, grammar and punctuation, but not rewriting. The text and changes below are invented to show the format.
Original sentence
"Participants who's income was below the threshold reported less visits to primary care, this was expected based on previous litterature (Smith, 2018)."
Tracked corrections
"Participants whose income was below the threshold reported fewer visits to primary care; this was expected based on previous literature (Smith, 2019)." Changes: who's → whose; less → fewer (countable noun); comma splice → semicolon; litterature → literature.
Margin comment
"The reference list gives Smith (2019). I have changed the in-text year to match — please confirm which is correct."
Summary note entry
"Recurring pattern: comma splices joining two full sentences (14 instances). Consider a semicolon, a full stop or a linking word such as 'which'."
Illustrative example only: the student, text, citation and counts are invented to show how proofreading changes and comments are presented.
What you’ll need to provide
- The near-final document in an editable format (Word, Google Docs export, or LaTeX source where agreed)
- Your preferred spelling variant and any required style guide or template
- For assessed work, your institution's proofreading or third-party support policy
- A list of terms, names or abbreviations that are intentionally unusual
- Your deadline and the word count excluding references and appendices if those are out of scope
You don’t need everything ready to ask for a quote — tell us what you have and we’ll say what’s missing.
What affects price and turnaround
Price depends on
- Word count of the text in scope (main body, and whether references, tables and appendices are included)
- How error-dense the text is — heavily revised drafts take longer to check line by line
- Technical density: equations, chemical names, legal citations or non-English terms slow careful reading
- Comments-only mode versus direct tracked corrections
- File format: Word is fastest; PDF annotation or LaTeX source takes more handling
Turnaround depends on
- Length of the document and how many passes it needs
- Whether you send the final version — late replacements of the file restart the check
- Your deadline; a short essay can be turned around faster than a full thesis, which needs sustained attention to stay accurate
Every project is quoted individually. How we price our work.
Questions people ask before starting
Is proofreading allowed at my university?
Often yes, within limits, but not everywhere. Look for a proofreading policy, a third-party support policy or your module handbook, and ask your supervisor if unsure. Send us the policy and we will work within it. If your institution prohibits third-party proofreading for the piece you are submitting, we will decline that piece and can suggest coaching support instead.
Will you improve my sentences while you are at it?
Not in a proofread. We correct errors and flag unclear sentences, but rewriting for style is a different service with a different integrity profile. If you want sentences improved and your rules allow it, ask for copyediting or line editing instead.
Can you proofread my references?
We check that in-text citations match the reference list and flag obvious errors. Formatting every entry to APA 7, Harvard, Vancouver or another style is a separate referencing check because it is detailed, time-consuming work.
Do you use AI tools to proofread?
We may use spell-check and consistency tools to find candidate errors, but a person reads the document and makes every decision. We do not paste confidential work into public AI chat tools.
Can you work on a PDF or LaTeX file?
Yes. For PDFs we use annotation comments, and for LaTeX we can edit the .tex source with changes marked or supply a list of corrections. Word is the quickest format for tracked changes.
What should I do with the tracked file after I accept the changes?
Keep it with your earlier drafts. Many universities can ask students to show how their work developed, and the tracked file shows exactly what a proofreader changed.