Proofreading work

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

Has anyone here ever worked as a proofreader, or know someone who has? I'm considering investing in a one day training and certification class, that includes job placement with an agency. I'm a very verbal person -- hell, I'm the guy everybody in college came to when they wanted someone to look over their papers. I think I'd rather enjoy the work.

This is the place that's offering the class: http://www.manhattanproofreaders.com
They seem to be saying there's immediate full-time and part-time placements available, on all shifts, and the pay is $15~20/h.

Somehow this seems too good to be true. I wonder if maybe the assignments are spotty or sporadic. (They wouldn't know, because they place me with an agency, who then gives me gigs.) That wouldn't fly, because I need something steady. Or maybe the work is very unpleasant in a way they don't say. Seems to me it's a job any native English speaker could do without a lot of trouble, and given that, it pays awfully high! Can anyone knowledgeable about this sort of work fill me in on what the catch might be?

 

[Deleted member 81238]

I think maybe you have jumped to the conclusion of what the job is about.

 

[Pegasus]

Your link doesn't seem to point where you want it to...

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

I fixed the link.

Um... as I understand it involves looking over documents for law firms, businesses, and publishers to make sure there are no grammatical, punctuation, or usage errors. If you understand it to be something entirely different, please tip me off!

 

[Told of Reversal]

Do you honestly want to have that occupation?
Do you feel like you can, honestly, enjoy and care about that kind of job?
Would you really want to do some laywers mule work?

Your doors are open indeed, if you want it go for it.

When it doubt son, throw it out... (or something like that)

 

[Infinite Jest]

Good proofreading is not easy. You're talking about needing to be alert to every pedantic grammatical detail, every misplaced comma, every possible spelling mistake, every issue of house style. Plus, it's quite demanding work - staring at text all day, till it starts to blur and you start to make mistakes.

I've done a fair bit of it, for a demanding audience, - but I'm by no means good. I never had any training, either.

[Note, what I've done is really copy-editing, not proof-reading as such]

You might want to check some of the links in this Wikipedia article for some insight into the job.

I did some research into that company - there is very little info about them on the web (all the hits are either their site, or business directories, or articles about their tutor). Not a bad sign, but not a good one either.

And I'm pretty sure from what I read of their site that they are not offering job placements - they claim to prepare you for the agencies' tests. Well, maybe. Maybe not. I'm pretty sceptical of private training institutes that make those claims.

Finally - I'm pretty sure that "Proofreaders' " in their name should be " Proofreaders " (no apostrophe after the s. Hmmm.....

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

Thanks, sim0n. Good advice. I think I'm going to give this place a big ol' miss. I see no reason why I couldn't just learn the proofreading marks from the Chicago Manual of Style and read a few more things about proofreading from books at the library and internet sites, and then just take the agencies' tests on my own. I've already got a liberal arts education, 2 foreign languages, translation work, and English teaching on my resume, so I doubt I'd need some 'training school' to polish me up for the agencies.

Told of Reversal, for a person who likes to read, I can think of worse ways to pay the bills for a year. I'm only looking for work for a year while I wait for schools to accept me -- I never said anything about a career in lawyers' donkey work.

 

[rashandreflex]

Seems to me it's a job any native English speaker could do without a lot of trouble, and given that, it pays awfully high!

you are overestimating the average english speaker. even in college and graduate work (i'm still in college but i've been in graduate classes and seen graduate papers), there are still lots of people who have issues with punctuation, pronoun agreement, tenses, etc...even spelling sometimes. also, spoken english often diverges from written english in very engrained ways (one major example that i'm sure proof readers would come across a lot is pronoun disagreement...like beginning a sentence with 'someone' and then referring to that person later as 'they') that would be difficult to catch.

i don't have any experience with professional proofreading, but i have proofread a lot of papers, and the only advice i can give is only take the job on if you have a lot of patience and a long attention span.

 

[DG]

i agree with simons advice. I am doing copyediting, editing currently and it is a very painstaking process and im only doing it within classes!

 

[Daisybabe]

also, spoken english often diverges from written english in very engrained ways ... i don't have any experience with professional proofreading, but i have proofread a lot of papers

"ingrained"

I have been a secretary/office manager for almost ten years now. Everyone in every office I've ever worked in has asked me to proofread for them. The job I have now is set up so that I review every document that leaves the office, not for content of course, but for typos. I am not the best with the agreements but I can spot punctuation errors and incorrect words a mile away. They stand out on the page to me; I can't *not* see them.

I think I was an editor in a former life.

I do think a professional proofreading job would be cool, but only if it was in a field I enjoy. It would be torture reviewing legal documents, annual reports and highly technical scientific papers. Novels and magazines would be amazing though!

 

[rashandreflex]

"ingrained"

according to dictionary.com and also microsoft word, it can be spelled either way. i sort of started freaking out and second-guessing myself when i saw that because for some reason, i take my ability to spell (and also recall other random facts) as a sign of general cognitive and memory functioning, which has slipped ever so slightly since i started using drugs.

 

[Daisybabe]

You are right, it can but that doesn't mean it should. I think the en- version is more of a foreign way of spelling it and would not be commonly used in the US. I did check to see if you were British before I made that comment, and wouldn't have corrected it if you had been.

 

[THR!]

Firstly you being "verbal" doesn't necessarily translate to technical writing. I'm not sure whether I misunderstood what you meant by that.

Secondly, it pays well because it's terribly frustrating, repetitive and boring.

Thirdly, a great proportion of people don't even know how to spell let alone contemplate grammar.

Fourthly, I don't see how a one day course can turn you into a proofreading/technical writing god.

Fifth and finally, I doubt any lawyer or person in a similar occupation would outsource that work. It would be against virtually every privacy law ever created. I could understand if you worked as a temp for the firm ...

If the money is good I don't see why you shouldn't try. But as you've said, you're fairly proficient at it anyway, so why bother with the course? Just go directly to the temping agency.