Proofreading Companies: Pros and Cons

In: Services

Proofreading companies

What are Proofreading companies?

You don’t have to be a brilliant detective to guess the occupation of the proofreading company. It’s proofreading all right, the score is yours. Yet it is not that simple as it seems from the beginning.

First of all, let us be clear about the term. It consists of two words, the meaning of each of them adds to the whole sense of the word-combination. Let’s disclose their meaning.

Proofreading” means the active reading of the text on purpose of locating its deficiencies on the levels of grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, text design, logical consistency, and eventually correcting them. There are many ways to proofread and edit a paper and different methods and technologies may be applied depending on the skills and knowledge of the proofreader.

Company” relates to the association of people that is legally fixed and serves to some industrial and / or commercial goals. There is a multibranch classification of the companies in accordance with their status, mission, composition, location, liability and so on.

Thus a Proofreading company is a legal association of people that fulfil the tasks related to the modification and improvement of the text. There are some particular moments that outline the concept of a proofreading company more precisely:

  • The employees in the proofreading company have the linguistic education and possess a high level of the language skills, proved by license, diploma, certificate or other documents.

  • Such companies usually establish a quality connection with the client by means of the technologies and devices (Internet, messengers, phones etc.) as well as using a psychological approach (for example, the “Active listening” technique, developing the stress-resistance). The good connection and the adequate feedback are crucial in this sphere as the author and the proofreader interact by means of the authors’ text aiming to increase its correctness and attraction.

  • The companies that offer proofreading services rarely dedicate themselves solely to the task of proofreading. To the contrary, the need for increasing the number of clients make the proofreading company to pace up and offer different kind of editing and likewise services (proofreading, rewriting, authentication of the text and so on). They also constantly widen their scope of work, both geographic (trying to get clients in the other geographic locations) and marketing-wise. The latter foresees the development of the product, adjusting it to the needs of the auditory, widening the possibilities and the range of services. E.g. the proofreading company that started with the offer to proofread college paper may come up with the proposal to proofread the dissertation paper, provided the level of their employees’ skills allows for it .

  • The companies engaged in proofreading always deal with the client’s concerns first thing as it is the core task of their job. It is important to make the text perfectly consistent, with straight grammar and the clearly outlined idea. However the main task is to produce the text that will meet the Author’s expectations and will be still recognized as his / her own.

So a proofreading company has its own peculiarities as to the structure and the principles of work. The more detailed account will be presented via the comparison with another form of interaction in this field – with the proofreading freelance job.

The other useful information in this section:

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  3. With Essay Proofreading You Will Get A+

  4. Choose the Best Dissertation Services

  5. Who Can Help Me to Reword My Paper

Freelance vs Proofreading company

Formulating a task to proofread your paper you encounter three possibilities to perform it: to make it yourself, to order it from the proofreading company or to hire a freelancer. Let us concentrate on the last two options as bringing the parallels between them will allow us to emphasize the particular features of the proofreading company and form an opinion on them.

So, dealing with a company or a freelancer in the field of proofreading will differ in the following points:

  1. Number of employees engaged with your paper. While the freelancers usually work alone, the proofreading company has at least three linguists in its staff who differ by their experience and sometimes by scientific views. Thus, your paper undergoes the more thorough analysis than it would be in freelancer’s hands. Besides, some services can be performed impeccably only by means of the collaboration of the people. For instance, round-the-clock support of the attentive and accurate essay proofreader online cannot be performed by one person. At least for more than two days in a row.

  2. The multi-task order will be fulfilled faster by the proofreading company than the freelancer. If some of your articles need a simple proofreading, another – a complete revision, and your essay is good enough but better to be rewritten in another clue – and all that with a tight deadline, you will surely rely on the bunch of expert editors than a single one – whatever brilliant this specialist might be.

Freelancer is a single individual and it is rarely that one person can do multiple tasks simultaneously and on the high quality level. If you started with proofreading, then upon detecting the deficiencies, decided to rewrite your paper, and then – completely tear it up and write a new one – it is much possible that one freelance worker won’t cope with all your orders or will mix up something while doing all the work at the same time. The consistency of the paper may suffer first thing. Check the ways to rectify the deficiencies by means of the professional text revision .

  1. The technical equipment. Though today the principal means of the connection and the text’ editing are accessible by the majority of people, yet the proofreading company possessing different size and quality printers, PC and OS softs, faxes, multi-canal connection lines and so on beats the freelancer in most of the cases.

  2. Quality checks. The freelancer proofreader, however diligent and accurate he or she might be, still deals with the same text by means of the same eyes and mind. It is highly possible that after a 5-hours work on the article even the top-ranked professional would miss a typo or an involuntary mistake. Within the company, the text undergoes several checks on different levels in accordance with the primary task (e.g. proofreading, editing, rewording). Thus the chances of detecting the deficiency or finding another way of the text’ refinement increase considerably.

  3. Accountability and responsibility. While the proofreading company works legally and is fully accountable with regard to its incomes and transfers, it is not always the same way with a freelancer. It is much easier to prove the funds’ transfer when dealing with the legal entity – the company.

There are also are different grades of responsibility for the result of the work between freelance job and the company fulfilling an order placed. The legislation differs from country to country however the modern global working trend is that the freelancer has less responsibility for his work than a hired specialist of the legal entity. Besides in case of dissatisfaction the client has more levers with the company than with the freelancer who is able just to stop communication and vanish in the middle of cooperation. Whatever serious reasons might be for that, you are more ensured with the company as another specialist will undertake your task.

  1. Reputation and guarantees. While all the specialists value their reputation, its decrease is much swifter and more crucial in case of the proofreading company. The negative feedback on the website is a nightmare of the company manager and would be dealt with as quick as possible. The expert freelancer also values and maintains his reputation, however the means of dealing with the negative feedback depend on his or her will solely. The pressing of the society is much milder.

  2. Implementing innovations. Being the professionals, both a company and freelancer worker strive to keep pace with the recent innovations in the field of linguistic studies and text’s editing. Attending to the key events such as conferences, forums, workshops, academic boards and so on is equally accessible to both parties.

  3. Creativity. Here’s the point going to the freelancer. It is true that constantly working with the same category of texts and fulfilling the similar tasks may lead to the usage of the same widely used patterns of words, tenses, metaphors, idioms and so on. All this relates to the proofreading company. The freelancer not being restrained by the management can choose his tasks in accordance with his interests and widen his or her scope by that. However this option is also available to the employees of the proofreading company – provided the issue of the working scheme variation, qualification increase, staff rotation is addressed wisely, the notion of creativity would not suffer within the company approach.

  4. Price. This factor depends completely on the policy of the company and of a certain freelancer. However being able to fulfil more orders at the same time and get larger income, the proofreading company has more room for the price decrease and / or offering discounts.

As we see, the distinction line between the freelance proofreader and the proofreading company is grounded on the number of employees involved in the task, the different legal status and responsibilities, the flexibility of the price policy and of the working framework. Both parties have their advantages and weaknesses, yet it seems the company possesses more tools and possibilities to ensure the quality product. Yet the possibility needs a proper realization, too. It is up to you which party to choose.

If you made up your mind in favour of the Proofreading company, we invite you to check the working of our proofreading service 24 hour a day.

How to choose the right Proofreading company

If you have chosen to entrust your paper to the reliable specialists of the proofreading papers service there are some basics that you must have a clear view of. Before placing the order you’ve got to make sure the company you’ve chosen is the worthy and trustful one. It is easy to do if you have some previous positive experience with this company. If it’s not the case then spend a bit of your time for checking the company reliability. It can save you a lot of time and effort in the future.

  1. Check the documents. Make sure this proofreading company is a real legal entity, it has a license for this type of the activity (where applicable). Importantly the employees’ education and skills must be also proved by the relevant documents.

  2. Check the feedback. Do not solely rely on the feedback on the company’s website. Google the name of the company, browse the links to it in the web. Pay attention to the discussions at the linguistic forums.

  3. Ask the company. If you still have doubts, ask the company’s administration about it. Describe what you need and ask the staff to represent the process to you briefly. If something still strikes you with regard to the proficiency or trustworthiness of the company, it is better to look for the other one.

  4. Don’t be mislead by the price. It can be enormously high or, to the contrary, particularly low. The optimal way would be to gather the information as to the existing prices on the market and adhere to the average size of reward. However sometimes the unusually high or low price may be grounded, for example, by the speed of the order’ fulfilling. So it is better to discuss these issues with the company representative.

Following these stages insidiously may lower down your enthusiasm, especially if you didn’t achieve the needed result at once. If you ask yourself, “How can I proofread my document properly”, it shows that due to some reasons you believe that your text might contain the deficiencies. Usually the writer’s intuition works well. So it will be reasonable to consult a linguist expert about your paper.

By the way, dealing with the editors and/or proofreaders may be easy and effective if you adhere to the following rules:

  • Make sure to indicate your main idea and the keywords. These must not change in the final version of the text.

The idea of the text is the negative impact of the adults’ antisocial behavior onto the children’ social patterns of reconstruction and behavior. The key words are: communication between child and parent, parent’s example of the social behavior, social deviations

  • Put the task clearly. Give a full account of what is to be done and what you expect to receive.

I want my text to be proofread and if some grammar or spelling mistakes are found, I’d like them to be eliminated. As to the contents and logical consistency, I’d like to receive the expert’s opinion and be able to decide for the next step.

  • Indicate a feasible deadline. Mention the date and time, not the period.

I need to have a revised essay until Thursday 11.00 am. – correct

I need my essay to be revised within hours. - incorrect

  • Provide your valid contacts and the time you may be contacted.

Please write me on my e-mail or call on my mobile +123123123 from 10.00 am to 06.00 pm.

Now that you know what is the background and occupation of the proofreading company, as well as its advantages and weak spots, you are able to determine the need to use its services for your essay, personal assignment, thesis etc. If positive, make sure you are precise and comprehensible in your order. There you are, holding your correct and impeccable paper!

Still going to proofread your text yourself? Find the useful techniques for the grammar studying in our recent articles:

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How to Master future Perfect Tense

Do you have difficulties with APA style? will help!

Have you ever used the services of the Proofreading company? Tried freelancers as well? Have you been satisfied with the result? Let us know by filling the contact form on our website.