As a proofreader, you can make money online from home at your convenient time. On average, a skilled person in proofreading can earn about $36 thousands (approximately Rs. 25,43,220 in India) if he or she works full time, according to sources. You too can earn such money. This article is for you to learn how to become a proofreader and earn successfully. Although the article is primarily focussed on opportunity seekers in India, it is also for anyone on earth who wants to start and make money from this work/job. First, let me start with what it is as likely you might be a beginner in this field.
What is Proofreading?
Proofreading is examining any text carefully to find and correct spelling, grammar, style and punctuation mistakes. Wikipedia says it is the final step in the editorial cycle. There is a difference between proofreading and editing. Editing involves making changes and suggestions to improve the overall quality of the text. Editing involves proofreading for the document to eliminate spelling, grammar and other errors of the language.
Apart from offline publication works, the demand for proof readers is steadily growing with the rise of the internet, blogs, and social media. You can take this opportunity to earn money online.
Who is suitable for this work?
Anyone who loves to read, write, find errors and correct them can do and earn from the work.
What are the skills required to have?
Ability to speak and write in English with native-like fluency if you work in English. You can work in other languages if you can. Excellent in reading skills and ability to follow the instructions are also required. If one has an average proof-reading speed of 1000 to 1500 words per hour, he or she can earn much from the work.
How to become a proofreader?
There is no special educational qualification to become a proofreader. But, a Bachelor’s Degree in English or journalism may be required. You should have the full knowledge of the language you are working on and ability to detect grammatical, spelling errors and more.
Although it seems easy to you, you need skills and experiences to become a successful proofreader. You need to learn from experts to successfully start with the career. You should train yourself before entering a job. For this purpose, I suggest you to read some useful books from Amazon. Click on the book title links below to know more details:
Proofreading books
McGraw-Hill’s Proofreading Handbook Paperback
by Laura Anderson
This handbook is useful to writers, copyeditors and professional proofreaders. It is an authoritative guide for ensuring the documents error free. You’ll learn how to read for accuracy and train your eyes to find errors, create a style sheet to stay consistent, master the art of making proofreader’s marks, understand typesetters’ language, etc. It is a comprehensive guide providing tools, sample style sheets, proof reading checklists, common misspelled words, a chart of proofreading symbols and everything others.
The McGraw-Hill Desk Reference for Editors, Writers, and Proofreaders(Book + CD-Rom) Paperback
by K. D. Sullivan & Merilee Eggleston
The reference guide is also useful for editors, writers and proofreaders who are responsible for clear and polished writing. The book comes with a CD-ROM with 25+ interactive tools and checklists. You’ll find style sheet templates, editor’s symbols, editing and proof reading checklists, common misspelt and confused words. Also find electronically editing and proof reading techniques for the web.
Copyediting and Proofreading For Dummies (For Dummies Series) Paperback
by Suzanne Gilad
This book is full of techniques and resources to maximise the accuracy and speed for those who want to become a copyeditor or proofreader. With this guide, polish your skills, build a winning resume and get the job you want. Work for books, magazines, websites and corporate documents and make yourself indispensible to writers, editors and your boss. Master the art of query, know proofreader symbols, proofread electronic documents and also build a freelancing career with this guidebook.
Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors Paperback
by Kathy Ide
With this guide, you (like an expert) can proofread manuscripts to detect typos, inconsistencies, inaccuracies and errors in punctuation, usage, grammar and spelling. It is added guidelines and helpful tips from multi-published authors about how to catch typos and other errors. Using various references, the author highlights the most common mistakes with PUGS (Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling).
Proofreading Software Tools
Human brain often gets mistakes and omissions. Hence, proofreaders use the advantages of software tools to get the work done quickly and accurately. Microsoft Word can do the job for you. But here are some best proofreading software’s to train yourself or use in the work. They are:
1. Grammarly
It is one of the most popular and best tool for you. It checks errors in grammar, spelling and writing style. You can start with the free version, then you can use the premium version when you are in the professional career. It comes with tools for corrections, a sentence structure checker, a plagiarism detector and more.
2. Ginger
Ginger software is one of the world’s best grammar and spelling checker. It is a browser extension. It is available in free and premium versions. Ginger premium includes a translator for over 60 languages.
3. Pro Writing Aid
It fixes writing and grammar, helps in word choice and vernacular, conform to your writing style, and helps to improve writing over time. It is also available in free and paid versions.
4. WhiteSmoke
WhiteSmoke is also one of the most popular English proofreading software like Grammarly. It consists of grammar checker, spell checker, style check, punctuation checker and translator. The web based tool translates your emails, contracts, websites and more in 55 languages. In the premium version, it comes with one-click instant proofreading tool.
It is a free web based readability checker. It helps you find errors in spelling, grammar, readability, etc. You can see the score of the text as you correct the errors. Paid users can download their desktop version and use for your proof reading tasks.
Take a proofreading test
In the above, I have given some books and software tools for you. If you want to enter the profession and earn successfully, I highly recommend to read one or two of the above-mentioned books. If so, you’ll learn many valuable lessons and expert tips in this field. Also use the software’s for high accuracy and speedy work. Train yourself doing several proof reading tests as follows:
Type a page of a book very fast in MS Word document without looking back for any errors. After that, see how MS Word indicates the errors with green and red underlines. Correct any error by crosschecking with the original page of the book.
Scan a document with a scanner, then use an OCR (like MS OneNote) to extract the texts from the scanned image file. Copy the extracted texts and paste into Gammarly or any tools mentioned above. Check for any error marked by Grammarly and correct it as suggested and as in the original document.
In the above ways or more, you can test yourself to increase your proof reading proficiency and experience. Try to achieve 100% accuracy in your tests and check how much time you took in each test.
Proofreading Certification
You might already be an experienced proofreader or not. But, you may want to be a certified proofreader. With a proof reading certificate, you may get a job easily. If you think so, you can join a professional proofreading certification course given below:
You can join Rehoboth Academic Services at Bangalore. Learn editing and proofreading skills with their certification course. They are committed to providing you support even after you complete the course to help you fully realize your goals.
IGNOU – Post Graduate Certificate in Copy Editing and Proof Reading (PGCCP)
You can complete the programme in 6 months or a maximum of 2 years. Admission notification is generally released in May or June. For more information on this course, please write to pgccp@ignou.ac.in.
They provide home study courses, so you can learn proofreading remotely. Beginners have the potential to be earning in as little as 2-3 months. For detailed information about the course, click the above link.
With this course, you can learn and train proofreading. You can take this world class certification course from home. So, whether you are in India or anywhere in the world, you can join the course.
Proofreading Niches
You should know or choose your proof reading niche. Think in what you are familiar with. To choose you niche, know your hobbies, passion, skills etc. For example, if you are interested in technology, read tech magazines, tech news, tech websites and anything related to technology. Even join free trainings and webinars. That will help you learn more about its related terms, news and industry. By doing so will help find a job for you easily.
How To Get Started and find a job?
In the above, you have read about proof reading books, software’s, certification courses and niches. If you have experiences in this field, it’s time to find a job and start making money. Think what job you will choose:
Want to become a legal proofreader? If so, you’ll work in the courtroom or for court reporters.
Want to be an academic proofreader? If so, you will work for academic publishers.
Want to become a freelance proofreader? If so, you will work remotely from home to serve clients who are looking in freelance proof reading jobs.
The following are the ways to get a proofreading job and start a proofreading service from your home. Some of them may offer you jobs with no experience required:
1. Proofreadingservices.com
You can here apply for full time and part time online positions. They pay from $19 to 46 per hour. For getting selected, you need to pass a 20 minute test consisting of 20 questions. The test is based on to test your English and Grammar fluency. The more questions you can answer correctly, the more chance you may get selected.
Click here to apply from anywhere.
2. Scribendi.com
Here offers you great flexibility of work. You can choose which projects to work and when to complete. But you need to complete a minimum of 10,000 words per month. They don’t conduct a qualification test. Those who have experience in editing, writing or language teaching will get a greater chance of acceptance. They also offer ESL proof reading jobs. All payments are sent through PayPal.
3. Proofreading jobs in India
If you are looking for such jobs only found in India, there are many job sites in India you can look up. But there is a job site of several job sites to find the right job you want quickly. If you are looking for jobs anywhere in India, search as ‘proof reading jobs’. If you are searching jobs for a specific location, type as proof-reading jobs in guwahati/kolkata/delhi/gurgaon/mumbai/chennai/ahmedabad etc. When you want to search jobs to work from home, search as ‘proofreading jobs from home’. Use any keyword to find the right results.
4. Freelance proof reading service
You might want to work with more freedom. If so, start a freelance proofreading business. But there are other services selling the same service. So, you should have the selling skills to get more clients. There are many websites or portals for freelancers. Below are some best sites to start your service:
Fiverr is one of the most popular freelancers’ site. You can list there your proofreading service and sell the service to make money. First, visit Fiverr and search the service like yours to see how other sellers do listings for it, pricing and delivery. Then, list your service. The more you sell, the more you earn.
It is similar to Fiverr although it has a slight difference. Sign up for a free account and list your service. People who like to hire you will bid and, then the bidder who wins will pay for your service. Then, you complete the work for the customer.
Like the above ways, you can list your service in other great freelancers’ sites like Upwork.com and Guru.com.
5. Amazon proof reading jobs
Amazon offers jobs in editorial, writing, and content management. Sometimes also proofreading jobs.
6. Start a proofreading blog
You can start a blog and offer proof reading services on it. In this case, you have the complete freedom. You are the boss of your proofreading business. You can price your service and schedule your own delivery time. You need to set up a payment gateway in your site to collect payments. But you should have the skills to drive traffic to your site to get more paying customers.
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