1) You know the difference between a hyphen, an en dash, and an em dash, and how to use them.
2) You keep a list of interesting names and addresses you encounter in your data checks. (Who wouldn’t want to live on Real Princess Lane or Camino de Pizza? And we’re going to try to avoid moving to Boring, Oregon if at all possible.)
3) You find articles like this to be relevant, helpful, and a source of passionate discussion: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/the-most-comma-mistakes/
4) You rejoice upon discovering that a document has lots of Latin placeholder text—no need to proof spelling and grammar there!
5) You get a very solid sense of satisfaction from catching an error and seeing that the change has been made on the next round of proofing. Declaring things “clean” feels great.
6) You have actual stylebooks, reference books, and a dictionary/thesaurus on your shelf. You originally put them there just to look cool (another way to tell you’re a Proofreader: you think good grammar qualifies as “cool”), but it turns out, you actually use them.
7) The book Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies is not as helpful as you want it to be, but it does make you giggle while you’re looking up when to use “who” and “whom.”
8) You proofread this blog post about 16 times before posting it—because what kind of Proofreader would publish something with an error in it?!?
Kidding aside, quality assurance—Proofreading included—is an essential part of Anderson’s daily business. Our Quality Mission Statement states that we are “committed to providing the highest level of quality and direct marketing services in the industry.” Whether that’s a proofreader catching a misspelling, a project manager noticing the misalignment of an address block, or someone on the production floor pausing the presses to check on something that looks odd, Anderson maintains a fierce commitment to total quality.
Contributors to this blog post include: Kelsey Comes and Carolyn Albee
