Frequently Asked Questions
Questions About Our Quality/Precision
Can you describe your proofreaders’ experience/backgrounds?
How many proofreaders will review my document?
Who are your clients?
Can you show me some testimonials?
Do you provide free samples?
Does computer software do the proofreading? Is your service automated?
Who needs proofreading services?
Questions About Our Prices/Rates
How much do your services cost? What are your rates?
What payment options do you offer?
Do you offer any discounts?
Why do people select your service over other services?
How do you price websites?
How do you price PDFs?
Do you have corporate accounts?
Do you allow payments via invoice?
Can my company set up a retainer?
Questions About Our Methods/Processes
What is proofreading?
What types of errors do you look for when proofreading?
Are proofreading and editing the same?
Do you offer editing/copy editing services?
What style guide do you use?
I don’t know the word count of my document. Can you help me?
How fast can you proofread my document?
How do you proofread large documents so quickly without sacrificing quality?
What file formats do you proofread?
How will you deliver my document? Via email?
How will I know what you changed?
How will you display and send the changes you’ll make to my document? What are your deliverables?
What does a document look like with track changes? Can I see an example?
I don’t understand how to use track changes. Can you help?
How do I remove (accept or reject) track changes?
Can you return a final version of my document (i.e. without track changes)?
Can you proofread PDFs and websites?
How can I get the word count of my PDF?
How do you display changes in a PDF?
How does website proofreading work? Do I have to copy all of the text from my website into Microsoft Word?
How can I get the word count of my website?
Can you proofread UK English?
Will you write/rewrite my paper?
Questions About Security/Confidentiality
Will my document be secure? Will you regard my document as confidential?
Can you sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)?
Will my document appear anywhere online?
Will you steal any of my work? Do you make any claim to copyright?
About Us
Where are you located?
Is there a phone number I can call to ask questions?
When is customer support available?
When are your proofreaders available? When do you accept documents?
Why was ProofreadingServices.Us founded?
Has ProofreadingServices.Us received any awards?
Are you hiring?
Our Quality/Precision
Can you describe your proofreaders’ experience/backgrounds?
Our proofreaders are arguably the best in the industry. They have years of experience as English professors and teachers, newspaper and magazine copy editors and other relevant professions. There’s more information available on our team page.
How many proofreaders will review my document?
A minimum of two proofreaders will review your document, in order to ensure top-tier quality. This is very rare among proofreading companies (and certainly if you hire freelancers, of course). Our two-proofreader model means that when you send us your document, it will be reviewed not once, but two times. If that doesn’t give you peace of mind, perhaps our list of glowing reviews will.
Who are your clients?
We proofread for publishers, governments and individual authors. When the details matter, people come to us. For a partial client list, click here.
Can you show me some testimonials?
Absolutely. Please see our Reviews page. ProofreadingServices.Us has also been favorably reviewed by KillerStartups.com and named the .US domain registry’s site of the week.
Do you provide free samples?
We certainly do. For everything you would like to know about ProofreadingServices.Us’ free samples, please click on our free samples page.
Does computer software do the proofreading? Is your service automated?
Absolutely not. Aside from using spell-check software as a tool that enhances our services, we do not use proofreading software. Our services are the result of years of professional training as proofreaders.
Who needs proofreading services?
Almost everybody. In particular, those who need their writing to be refined need proofreading services. For a better understanding of what proofreading is, see this.
Our Prices/Rates
How much do your services cost? What are your rates?
Great question. Our rates are below, but for an exact, free instant quote for your project, please see our simple quote calculator.
1.3 cents/word for a 1-week turnaround
1.9 cents/word for a 72-hour turnaround
2.5 cents/word for a 48-hour turnaround
Volume discounts are available for projects over 25,000 words. Simply contact us.
Copy editing (also referred to as editing services) is available as well. Please contact us for details.
We can fit nearly any budget. Contact us if you are concerned that we cannot fit yours.
What payment options do you offer?
We can accommodate just about any type of payment method. Through our website, you can pay securely using PayPal or a credit card (including Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover). If you would prefer to pay via check or you need to be invoiced after the work has been completed, we are happy to oblige. Simply let us know what payment method works best for you.
Do you offer any discounts?
We absolutely do. We offer aggressive volume discounts for large projects (+25,000 words). If you have a large project, contact us, so we can offer you a highly discounted price. You can also reduce the cost of your project by choosing a longer turnaround time on our Get Started page.
Why do people select your service over other services?
This is an easy one. Try to find an error on this page. We’ll give you a minute.
Hundreds of clients have entrusted their important documents to us. If you’d like to see some of our clients, please see this list. It’s not just our quality, however; people choose us time and time again because of our great prices, fast turnaround times (as fast as 48 hours, even on very long documents) and our friendly and reliable customer service. If you’re still unsure about which proofreading service to choose, simply give us a call (1-800-49-CORRECT) or send us a message.
How do you price websites?
We will use proprietary technology to ascertain the word count of your website. Once we have the word count, our standard proofreading rates will apply.
How do you price PDFs?
We will use proprietary technology to ascertain the word count of your PDF. Once we have the word count, our standard proofreading rates will apply.
Do you have corporate accounts?
We certainly do. Everything you need to know about our corporate proofreading accounts is located here.
Do you allow payments via invoice?
We do, when clients have recurring or large (+$500) proofreading needs. Contact us to discuss invoicing options.
Can my company set up a retainer?
Absolutely. Please contact us to discuss setting up a retainer.
Our Methods/Process
What is proofreading?
This is a great question. Proofreading takes place at or near the final stage of the publication process. It is one of the last checks for errors before a document is submitted, published, sent, printed, or otherwise finalized. Proofreading involves reviewing a document for spelling, grammar, formatting, and other errors. Depending on a document’s original quality, it can involve making word choice suggestions.
Please see this page for a more comprehensive definition of proofreading.
Please see these posts for examples of what can happen when errors remain in your final documents: Ouch #1 and Ouch #2
For an explanation of proofreading vs. editing, please see this page.
What types of errors do you look for when proofreading?
Great question. We look for spelling, grammar, formatting, and sentence structure errors. We also suggest word choice changes and make other suggestions or comments when we see fit.
Here is another way of looking at it: Proofreading is generally one of the final steps before publication. By the time a document goes to a proofreader, the document’s central ideas and arguments are generally written in a way that the author prefers. Our job is then to remove embarrassing errors that negatively affect the document’s credibility.
If you are a non-native English speaker and you are interested in making sure that your English writing is clear and professional, we also offer copy editing services. Our copy editing services are a more comprehensive solution that is perfect for non-native English speakers. Please contact us if you are interested in copy editing services or you have any questions about what our proofreading or copy editing services involve. We love hearing from potential clients.
Are proofreading and editing the same?
They are not the same, but rest assured that we offer both services. For a clear explanation of the differences between proofreading and editing, please see this post titled “Proofreading vs. Editing: Two Elements of Superior Publishing.”
Do you offer editing/copy editing services?
We certainly do. Though editing is not the same as proofreading (see this great article), we absolutely offer copy editing services. Contact us, so that we can assess whether you need editing or proofreading services.
What style guide do you use?
We most often use the Chicago Manual of Style, but we can work with nearly any style guide you prefer.
I don’t know the word count of my document. Can you help me?
Absolutely. We can easily ascertain the word count of Microsoft Word documents, PDFs, and even websites. If you would like help, simply contact us.
How fast can you proofread my document?
We can proofread documents in as few as 48 hours. You have the option of selecting different turnaround times (48 hours, 72 hours, or one week) when you order. For particularly long documents (+250 pages), we will take a look at your document completely for free and let you know how long it will take. To understand how we return very long documents in short periods of time while doing an excellent job, please see this.
How do you proofread large documents so quickly?
We’ll let you in on our secret regarding long documents with short turnaround times: Most proofreading companies assign one document to one proofreader. Instead of adopting this standard model with long documents that have short turnaround times, we use a model in which we break documents into lots of pieces and allocate them to a whole team of top-tier proofreaders. When a proofreader has finished reviewing his or her section, that section is transferred to another proofreader to be reviewed again. When all of the pieces of the document(s) have been reviewed by at least two people, we compile the document(s) into its whole form. This allows us to maximize our speed while focusing on quality.
What file formats do you proofread?
We proofread all of the standard file formats like .doc, .docx, .pdf, and many other formats. We even proofread websites. Send us whatever files you need proofread; we haven’t yet been sent a document that we have not been able to proofread. Contact us if you’d like us to take a look at your document and let you know if we can proofread it. Your initial evaluation is completely free.
How will you deliver my document? Via email?
We send all proofread documents via email. We record all changes using Microsoft Word’s track changes feature. Microsoft Word’s track changes feature allows you to easily review the changes we make. For more information about Microsoft Word’s track changes feature, please see this video. Of course, you can ask us any questions you have.
How will I know what you changed?
When proofreading, we track all of our modifications to your documents using Microsoft Word’s track changes. This will allow you to easily see what we’ve decided to change. We sometimes will also leave helpful comments to the author in the margins, again using Microsoft Word’s track changes. For more information about Microsoft Word’s track changes, please see this video.
How will you display and send the changes you’ll make to my document? What are your deliverables?
We will send your proofread document via email. Your document will have Microsoft Word’s track changes. For more information about Microsoft Word’s track changes, please see this video.
What does a document look like with track changes? Can I see an example?
Here’s a great example:
For more information about Microsoft Word’s track changes, please see this video.
I don’t understand how to use track changes. Can you help?
Certainly. For a great overview of Microsoft Word’s track changes, please see this video. If you have any questions about Microsoft Word’s track changes or other issues, please never hesitate to contact us. We are here to help.
How do I remove (accept or reject) track changes?
This video does a great job explaining the ins and outs of track changes, including how to remove them. If you have any questions about Microsoft Word’s track changes or other issues, please never hesitate to contact us. We are here to help.
Can you return a clean version of my document (i.e. without track changes)?
Absolutely. Some clients prefer to have a document without track changes sent directly to them. We can absolutely do that. When getting started, simply let us know that you would like both a document with track changes and a document without track changes (a clean version). There’s no extra charge for this service.
Can you proofread PDFs and websites?
We absolutely can proofread PDFs and websites. We have a number of ways we can display our changes in both scenarios, so please contact us so we can explain how we can best assist you in your specific situation.
How can I get the word count of my PDF?
Don’t bother; we’ll do it for you. Simply send your file(s) to [email protected] and ask us to provide the word count. If you would like to ascertain your PDF’s word count on your own (again, it’s not necessary), please know that, though there are computer programs that exist specifically to do this, it is often quickest to simply copy your PDF’s text into a Microsoft Word document. Microsoft Word will automatically calculate the total word count.
How do you display changes in a PDF?
We have a few different options, depending on how the PDF was made. The two best options are: (1) With many PDFs, it is possible to highlight our changes using an Adobe Acrobat feature specifically designed for doing so (this feature is similar to Microsoft Word’s track changes feature). (2) We can convert your PDF into a Word document and use Microsoft Word’s track changes feature to clearly label our changes. Please contact us so we can explain how we can best assist you in your specific situation.
How does website proofreading work? Do I have to copy all of the text from my website into Microsoft Word?
Let us do the heavy lifting; we will use proprietary technology to ascertain the word count of your website. Simply send us the link to your website and we’ll go right to work calculating its total word count. We will then use a combination of technology and human labor to obtain the text from your website and load it into Microsoft Word documents that we will proofread. You won’t need to lift a finger.
How can I get the word count of my website?
Let us do the heavy lifting; we will use proprietary technology to ascertain the word count of your website. Simply send us the link to your website and we’ll go right to work calculating its total word count.
Can you proofread UK English?
We absolutely can. Though we most frequently proofread US (American) English, we have a team of proofreaders who are experts in proofreading UK English (sometimes, our clients also refer to this as “British English”). If you would like us to proofread your document using UK English rules and spelling conventions, simply let us know when you order.
Will you write/rewrite my paper?
We will not. Proofreading strictly involves making a good document better. We will not insert our own ideas into your work. People come to us to make sure their ideas will be displayed as professionally as possible. To that end, we carefully review our clients’ documents for grammar, spelling, formatting, sentence structure, and other errors. We make sure that our clients’ ideas, arguments and, for the most part, words are preserved.
Security/Confidentiality
Will my document be secure? Will you regard my document as confidential?
Absolutely. Your document will be secure from the second you upload it via our secure upload form to when it is being handled by the experts from our proofreading team (all of whom have agreed to confidentiality provisions) to when it is sent to you via email. We take security and confidentiality very seriously. That said, if you would like us to sign your non-disclosure agreement (NDA), we would be happy to do so. Simply contact us with the non-disclosure agreement and our CEO will review, sign, and return it.
Can you sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)?
Absolutely. Simply send it to us and we’ll send a signed version back to you very quickly.
Will my document appear anywhere online?
Absolutely not. We believe in strict confidentiality and we will not share your document with anyone outside of our organization. For more information about our confidentiality procedures, please see this.
Will you steal any of my work? Do you make any claim to copyright?
Absolutely not. We would never dream of it. ProofreadingServices.Us makes no claim to any of our clients’ copyrights. Your work is your own. ProofreadingServices.Us does not require any form of acknowledgement on material that you have written that we proofread. After you pay for our proofreading services, you own the changes we make for you.
About Us
Where are you located?
Our main office is in Florida. Though we are headquartered in Florida, our clients are located around the world, as we are an online proofreading service.
Is there a phone number I can call to ask questions?
Absolutely. Our phone number is 1-800-49-CORRECT (1-800-492-6773). You can also email us using the information on our contact page.
When is customer support available?
Customer support is typically available via phone (1-800-49-CORRECT) Monday through Friday from 9AM to 5PM PDT. Email support is available at all hours.
When are your proofreaders available? When do you accept documents?
We are available right now. We accept documents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Why was ProofreadingServices.Us founded?
ProofreadingServices.Us was founded by Luke Palder, a nonfiction author and Yale University graduate. Luke wrote many papers during his time at Yale and he realized that the purpose of slowly, methodically proofreading papers was both to eliminate embarrassing errors from the papers and to generate confidence in one’s writing. He wanted to make it possible for other people to feel confident in their own work, professionally and academically. When academic and business writers come to ProofreadingServices.Us, they do so because they want to know that, by the time the ProofreadingServices.Us team has finished with their documents, their writing will be refined. People come to us when they want to be sure that someone else will treat their work with as much care as they did when they wrote it. If you would like to see our clients’ opinions of how carefully we’ve treated their documents, please visit this page.
Has ProofreadingServices.Us received any awards?
We absolutely have. ProofreadingServices.Us was named the .US domain registry’s site of the week. ProofreadingServices.Us has also been favorably reviewed by KillerStartups.com.
Are you hiring?
Please see our online proofreading jobs page for all of the information you’ll need.
