What does it consist of?
Proofreading is a very important step that any text must go through, although especially informative, editorial and public texts must be proofread to be sure:
- A proper understanding of its content
- A fluent reading
- Appropriate adaptation to the final recipient and its culture
- Respect for language regulations
All this without changing the message the author intended to convey in the original text!
Types
Proofreading of content
Revision of the content of the original text by a specialist in the subject matter. This person is responsible for ensuring the use of terminology and phraseology appropriate to the subject matter, as well as the accuracy of the information provided.
Proofreading
This type of correction focuses on objective aspects of the target language, for example:
- Spelling and accentuation mistakes
- Punctuation problems
- Double spacing, spacing before signs, etc.
- Use of upper and lower case letters
- Symbol writing
- Use of typographic resources (e.g. use of italics to write species names)
As a translator and proofreader, I often have to correct so-called orthotypographic anglicisms, among other things, in my proofreading work:
- Incorrect capitalisation of common nouns, titles, etc.
- The improper addition of an “s” to indicate the plural of an acronym
- The use of the dot as a decimal point
- The absence of space between the figure and the percent sign
- The spelling of certain abbreviations (e.g. no. instead of n.o.)
Style correction
In this case, we focus on the way in which the message is conveyed, i.e. its wording. Some of the issues covered include:
- The placement of sentence elements
- Refinement of repetitive or over-generalised vocabulary
- The elimination of redundant words and phrases
- Rewriting ambiguous sentences
- Adapting the register to the reader
- Correction of grammatical errors, concordance, correlation of verb tenses, etc.
- Lack of connectors
- The correction of casts and false friends
- The rectification of dequeisms, cacographs, excessive adverbs, etc.
Resources
What corrective resources do I use?
Dictionaries
- Diccionario de la lengua española (Real Academia de la Lengua Española)
- Basic resource for spelling, gender and other word information. Available online.
- Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (Real Academia de la Lengua Española)
- Also available online, this resource provides answers to questions about morphology, syntax, lexicosemantics and more.
- Diccionario de colocaciones del español (Grupo DiCE)
- Allows you to search for combinations of words that are often used together.
- Diccionario combinatorio práctico del español contemporáneo (Ignacio Bosque)
- Another dictionary of word combinations that is particularly useful when in doubt about the prepositions that should accompany certain words
Handbooks
- Ortografía de la lengua española (Real Academia Española)
- Manual de estilo de la lengua española (José Martínez de Sousa)
- Nueva gramática de la lengua española (Real Academia Española)
Software
- MemoQ spellcheck and quality assurance
- The spell-checking function of this CAT tool allows for the detection of grammatical and spelling errors. Moreover, its quality assurance function includes a review of spacing and decimal point problems.
- Microsoft Word Editor
- Simple checking for errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, style, clarity and more.
- PerfectIt
- Proofreading software that can be integrated into Microsoft Word, facilitating the detection of spelling errors, terminological consistency and more.
Online resources
- Fundéu RAE
- Online consultation of all kinds of doubts related to the Spanish language.
- Stilus
- Online spelling, grammar and style checker. Free for proofreading up to 5000 words/month.
- Lorca editor
- Free online checker. Detect spelling, style, readability and other errors in the text you upload to the editor.
Proofreading resources focusing on medical writing
- Cómo traducir y redactar textos científicos en español (M. Gonzalo Claros)
- Available for download from the Esteve Foundation website. It provides information on linguistic rules specifically applicable to scientific writing.
- Diez errores usuales en la traducción de artículos científicos (Nidia Amador Domínguez)
- Another online resource listing the ten most common mistakes in scientific writing in Spanish and tips on how to avoid them.
Contact me if you need to proofread or edit a text in the biomedical field.
