The basic proofread for marketers with a small budget

If you can’t afford to hire a professional copy editor or proofreader to review your marketing communications before final publishing, here’s how you can do a very basic proofread of the item by yourself.

These steps cover some basic items to look for, and they work best if your marketing piece is fairly simple, on one page, for example, and not text heavy. These steps also assume you have the “final” designed piece (digital or printed) in front of you, ready for your approval.

1. Put the piece away somewhere and don’t look at it again until the next day.
2. Read it again slowly and calmly for sense and flow, and verify that the main message is clear overall. Since you’re about to go live with this piece, you shouldn’t be making any major content (or design) changes.
3. Now look at it in more detail. Read it again from the beginning. Review each and every word for spelling, especially proper names. Misspellings are the worst error to miss.
4. Verify that any dates, times, phone numbers, and Web or street addresses are correct.
5. Now look for space issues. Look for extra spaces between paragraphs, sentences, words and letters. There should be only one space between sentences, not two. Strange spacing in text (if it is not intentional) is awkward and off-putting.
6. Check if any text is accidentally cut off or covered up by something in the design, making it unreadable, or if text has somehow dropped out. Missing text or covered text errors are especially sloppy.
7. Submit your changes to your Web or graphic designer.
8. On the revised version, check that your changes were done correctly. Glance at the whole piece again and verify that nothing else was changed by accident. If everything looks good, then you’re ready to approve. If not, go back to step 7.

What about grammar or punctuation? If you have a doubt, you’ll have to consult the copywriter who wrote the piece.

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Copy Editor’s Tip: Creating the first layout

Finally, you’re ready to create the first layout, when final design and copy come together. It means your project is nearly done. I always look forward to seeing the plain text I’ve been reviewing up until then transform into something more visual. But to get the cleanest first layout to present to the client in the fastest way, i.e., with minimal rounds of changes, project managers should remember two things:

• Last-minute changes to the copy before first layout should be proofread by the proofreader/editor.
• In the first proofread after the first layout, the proofreader may have to make further changes to the “final” copy.

It’s tempting to have the designer input any last-minute copy changes. However, any errors in the requested changes, or structural fixes needed as a result of the changes, are easier to fix in a plain text document by the editor/proofer, which avoids a round through the design department in case the first layout turns out to be otherwise perfect.

After layout, the proofer will make sure all the copy was laid out. However, when copy melds with a design, it takes another form, it looks different and may read different. Also, the designer may have slightly modified some text, such as a header or caption, to make it fit better in the design. Further, the proofer will be reviewing the piece overall, not just the copy, checking for conformance to house style for example, which may or may not involve small tweaks to the copy. This review is like a first review of a new piece.

It should only take a few production rounds to perfect the first layout, and hopefully, the result is exactly what the client wanted.

Resume tips from an editor

Sometimes colleagues and friends ask me to proofread and edit their resumes. I do my usual thorough review, keeping in mind the purpose of this type of document.

I refrain from commenting on the structure of the resume (a resume used in the United States). Career counselors and recruiters have varying opinions about what to include and what not to include, outside of the basics. In the end, it’s up to you to decide which recommendations to follow.

Based on my experience as a job seeker and as someone who has been on the other side helping to interview candidates, here are some basic tips for writing a resume:

• Always target your resume to the job you’re looking for. Use relevant key words wherever possible.
• Use plenty of action verbs to describe what you’ve done in the past. Be descriptive but brief. Remember also that some tasks you’ve done in previous, seemingly less relevant jobs may transfer easily to the job you’re looking for.

• Verbs should be in the past tense to describe previous jobs and in the present tense to describe your current position.

• The document should be easy to read so the hiring manager can quickly see whether you fit the job or not: Use bulleted lists rather than large blocks of text. Use good styling and formatting overall. Pay attention to the use of leading and white space.

Another key: To help you determine what skills and experience to include and how to describe them, think about what you would be looking for in the resume if you were the hiring manager.

If you’d like to get your resume proofread and edited, email me at gkwo@yahoo.com. It always helps to get a second eye and a professional proofread.