Proofreading nobody's perfect. that's why proofreaders exist. a proofreader is a person whose job is to check for errors in a written document. because we all make mistakes, it's a good idea for anyone who's written something - a research paper, a newsletter, a brochure - to have it proofread. even when you think you're all done, you'd be surprised at the errors a fresh pair of eyes will spot. what proofreaders look for all types of companies, from advertising agencies to book publishers, employ proofreaders. many of the errors proofreaders find are typing errors - typos, for short. sometimes punctuation has been omitted. words that should be capitalized, such as proper nouns or those starting a sentence, sometimes aren't. two letters might be transposed (put in the wrong order) - a common typo. the proofreader also looks for misspelled words. typists can accidentally drop a letter from a word, or perhaps the writer originally misspelled it. not everyone can proofread well. you must be detail-oriented and methodical. a proofreader has to read the text very carefully. in fact, he or she really shouldn't read the text at all, but instead look at each word, one at a time. when we read, we're caught up in the meaning of the sentences. because our brains often supply missing information to make sense of things, the reader may not see the errors. for instance, if the word "the" has been left out of a sentence, it is very possible to read it as if the word were there. in order not to fall into the trap of reading the text for meaning, some proofreaders will "read" the document backwards. question 1 of 40 it is a rule among people who write for publication never to proofread their own work. why? they will be tempted to rewrite the text and miss their publication deadline. they are too involved in the meaning of the text and may not see errors. most writers are not detail-oriented and will not do a thorough job.