How Not to Use Spell Check When Proofreading | DLA Editors & Proofers

If you are one of the many writers who rely solely on spell check to address any typos or grammatical errors, you may be surprised how many proofreading errors are getting past you. This is where professional proofreading services can help. It isn't that spell check doesn't play an important role. Most of us rely on our spell check to verify our spelling, believing our software will let us know every time we get it wrong. However, what do you do when you are not sure whether your character should “accept” or “except” advice from his mentor?  How do you resolve your doubt whether the heroine of your novel is lost in the “desert” or in the “dessert”? As you can see from these examples, there are many situations in which giving spell check the final word as your proofreader will simply not help.

Most of us are aware of the funny little suggestions that spell check makes from time to time. Even though you know you got that sentence right, it keeps telling you you made the wrong choice with a singular verb instead of a plural. No matter whether you put one or two l’s in “traveler,” it may tell you the other spelling is correct. The fact is spell check is not perfect. However, that’s what you want your writing to be, and that's where using our professional proofreading services can help.

Spell check can be a useful starting point for catching proofreading errors while you are writing. Once you are finished, you should take the next step by hiring us for our professional proofreading services. We add the human touch needed to catch what the software can't. The end result will be your writing polished to make it the best it can be.