Good Old Fashioned Pen and Paper

Like all properly trained English Literature majors, I learned how to proofread in college. I took an entire class devoted to learning the language of proofreading and how to properly mark up a paper. It was considered training for someday becoming an English professor myself, which is pretty much the only career field Literature professors see any of their students someday entering.

It was an easy class, I learned a whole lot of esoteric information, and I was happy to add it to my course list. Of course, I promptly forget everything in it once the quarter ended.

Imagine my surprise, then, when a client recently asked me to proofread a 60-page document they needed almost immediately. I like this client and was happy to do it, so we agreed on a fair price. Then the client dropped the bombshell: would I please print out the pdf file, make the markings directly on to the paper, and fax it back into them?

Huh? What? Markings on the paper?

I’ve been a writer and editor for several years now. I have never – not once – been asked to edit anything by hand. Most of the time, I use the tracker function on Word. Sometimes, when the clients know my work, they tell me to just go ahead and make the changes on the document. I didn’t even know there were people out there who still worked in pen and paper.

So I sucked it up and did it. With the help of a couple of proofreading websites, I gave myself a brief crasher course on what I needed to know. I thought I was prepared.

I wasn’t.

In college, professors almost always require students to use 1.5 or double spacing. You know why? Because they can’t fit all those proofreading marks in otherwise, unless they’re writing with tiny little Oompa Loompa hands. They also use red pens to make their information stand out – which would have been useless considering I was going to fax the darn thing. Then there was the small matter of faxing 60 pages worth of anything. That’s a whole lot of fax.

I’ll tell you this – proofing a pdf by hand is no small feat. My eyes and my hands have been honed to work almost solely on the computer – word processor documents are bright, large, and changes can easily be reversed. Paper is small, dark, and (when using pen) permanent.

I got it done and have certainly learned a few things in the process. So let me share my advice to take away from this experience.

Charge more for hand proofing.