Saturday, 11 June 2016

Proofreading Services vs Grammar Checkers

Proofreading services and automated grammar checkers have both become essential to the online content industry, they ensure quality by providing the final checks before publication. However, both can have different degrees of success. In order to consider the benefits of each it is necessary to first define the role of a proofreading service and that of grammar checkers. A proofreading service provides human checks for errors, grammatical inconsistencies and punctuation and syntax issues. It involves an editor reading the text to correct the errors. Whereas, a grammar checker is often an automated software that will scan the document for inconsistencies against a predefined set of grammar and punctuation rules.



Benefits of human proofreading services


The benefits of the human proofreading service over the grammar checkers are that a qualified editor will have years of experience. It is also likely that they will have a similar background in the subject matter. Therefore they can bring that experience and background into the proofreading process to identify errors and making changes in context. These may be subtle changes, however they are changes that only someone with the relevant background will spot.

Negatives of the human proofreading service

There are also negative aspects to using a human proofreading service, for example using an editor to go over your text is a much longer process and will take more time. Also due to the length of time and the value of the experience, the costs of this type of service will be greater.

Benefits of a grammar checker


There are numerous grammar checkers available now, many of them will provide a free automated check of your document this in turn will help you to spot any errors and inconsistencies. The benefits of this are that it is instant, and much cheaper and in many case free.

Negatives of grammar checkers

Grammar checkers although quick and much cheaper will not pick up everything. In particular it is the contextual changes and issues that they cannot address, an editor with a relevant background will be able to pick up on contextual changes.

In conclusion


To conclude although both proofreading services and grammar checkers provide benefits, they are different degrees of benefits depending on what you need. A grammar checker as already discussed will be quicker and cheaper and is useful if you are in a hurry. However, it will not pick up on all the contextual issues that a human editor can do and a human editor will be more expensive. Therefore, you have to weigh up depending on your urgency, your budget and your needs which one is best for you.

No comments:

Post a Comment