Why You Need a Proofreader
After several years working in professional services, I've come to the conclusion that everyone should have a proofreader for important documents. Having a proofreader is not a sign that you are incompetent or careless, it's a sign that you care about the quality of your work product. It is critical to have someone read your work from an objective and relatively uninformed position. Here's a few things that proofreaders tend to find when reviewing documents.
Minor Grammar and Spelling Mistakes
When you are creating your work paper, drafting a set of financial statements, or creating a proposal, you are likely focused on the numbers to make sure that the critical information is correct. On top of that, you have likely spent hours staring at this document putting everything together and are able to recite portions of it in your head without having to actually read the document. This means that you will read the document as you intend it to be read even if some of the words are misspelled or missing from the document. Because you know what the documents should say and have been thinking about it for a while, it's harder for you to catch these types of mistakes. A fresh reader won’t have this background and will be able catch these things more easily. These can be particularly important because it is very easy to miss minor details that readers may judge heavily. Missing minor items in the wrong place can project that you lack attention to detail, which is a core competency in many jobs where those details can make a difference.
Consistency
When you are a report writing, there are tons of minor patterns that occur when drafting the entire report. Oftentimes these patterns are up to someone's personal preference and many readers will not care one way or the other. For example, acronym clarifications can be written in multiple ways:
The internal revenue service (IRS)
The internal revenue service (IRS)
The internal revenue service, or the IRS
The internal revenue service, also known as the IRS
When creating a report, you want to maintain consistency with the way you treat certain situations. In the example above, a proofreader might catch that you have abbreviated one acronym in accordance with number one and a different acronym when in accordance with number two. When those differences are put next to each other, it can make the document look sloppy.
Clarity
I have had students, clients, and colleagues submit work that I simply cannot understand because it is hard to follow. One of the most important things that a proofreader can do for you is expose your ideas to someone else's eyes and interpretation before it meets the final reader. If you take the time to ask your proofreader to see if they have any questions about the document or if something is hard to understand, they can provide valuable feedback about how to convey your ideas to someone who hasn't spent hours preparing the document. I've had proofreaders come back to me and say that an example would have been great to help follow a certain section of a legal document, or that adding labels in certain areas would make it easier to understand. I'm not saying to take a document meant for very well-versed people and oversimplify it, but it is usually worth your time to make something more digestible for the intended reader if possible.
Depending on the situation, the above areas may be unimportant or very important to you. In any circumstance it's a very good idea to have someone available to proofread your work and give you the feedback on things that you overlooked because you are the writer. Good luck!