Corrector: profession and its features

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Every day people leaf through newspapers, read various magazines and websites on the Internet, look at signs and shop windows, wondering when any error in the text is found. This does happen, but it's pretty rare. After all, before the publication of any text, the material needs to be carefully checked by a proofreader.

Description

Proofreader is a profession, the essence of which is quite simple: reading texts before publication, finding and correcting all typos, stylistic and grammatical errors. At the same time, compliance with the editorial policy should be monitored. In the publishing industry, such specialists are in great demand. Every newspaper or magazine has at least one proofreader who makes sure that the texts are in order. It is clear that a real specialist must have a serious knowledge of the Russian language.

History

Proofreader is a very ancient profession, since people who specialize in correcting mistakes existed 2000 years ago in Rome. They worked in shops wherebooks were sold, proofreading and correcting errors. As soon as typography appeared and books began to be printed in large numbers, editing of texts became very popular.

Today there are already a large number of virtual services that allow you to check spelling and highlight all errors. Because of them, the work of a proofreader has become less necessary. But it is worth saying that all such services are still very far from perfect. Authors who trust them lose their vigilance and, unfortunately, their literacy.

Requirements for candidates

You can often hear the question: proofreader - profession or speci alty? Rather, it’s a profession, since universities don’t teach specifically to be proofreaders. But education is still needed. Here is a list of standard requirements for a good corrector:

• Higher linguistic or philological education.
• Perfect knowledge of the Russian language.
• Knowing the signs used in proofreading.
• Knowledge of typography and its principles.
• Persistence and attentiveness.

For publications that specialize in a particular area, experience in correcting industry texts is often required. It can be legal, economic texts. In cases like this, employers often prefer proofreaders trained in the relevant field, rather than just linguists or philologists.

By the way, often education is not enough, because you also need innate talent.

Sometimes at least basic knowledge is requiredsome foreign language, as well as knowledge of computer programs, since texts are not always corrected in all known Word.

Working with a large number of reference books and dictionaries is also one of the requirements. After all, a proofreader is a specific profession. You need to be not just a competent person, but an expert.

Among the desired knowledge and skills are the following:

• Knowledge of software tools for finding errors.
• Ownership of publishing programs.
• Knowledge of the layout of the publishing process and the work of the media.

When hiring, they pay attention not only to the diploma, but also to the completion of a test task, in which they offer to edit texts. For this reason, random people will not be able to get into the profession.

Prospects

Editing texts is not an activity that can provide candidates with high earnings and career growth. Working in a publishing house, you can rise to the rank of senior proofreader. This is where the growth ends. The salary is not very high, but you can get good pay if you read and edit at least a hundred pages of text per day. This is a very big load. In some cases, it happens that the proofreader becomes the editor of the department, but this will require tremendous efforts. Proofreader leaders, as a rule, turn out to be good, as they are attentive and assiduous. All the efforts of proofreaders remain in the shadows, as the author receives fame and money. Well, if inthe text will be a very gross error, then the punishment will wait for the corrector.

Salary

The salary of a proofreader is low. It ranges from 18 to 45 thousand rubles. The average salary is the amount of 21 thousand rubles. That is why many representatives of this profession work simultaneously in several publishing houses. This is quite possible, since the production cycles of all publishers are different. Corrector at home is another area of this profession in which you can get good extra income in your spare time.

Pros and cons

Working as a corrector has both positive and negative sides. Benefits include:

• Work is suitable for those who do not like to lead an active lifestyle and choose sedentary work.
• It is possible to work remotely.

Disadvantages include:

• Repetitive and routine work.
• Prospects for climbing the corporate ladder are dim.
• High degree of responsibility with low wages.

The main places of work are print and online publications. But you can also get a job in a printing company or in one that has a service responsible for public relations.

Some publishers, trying to save money, give corrections to journalists or copywriters. But practice shows that verification by a professional proofreader is still required, since the authors do not do without errors, and the publication loses credibility.