Don’t slap your readers!

Proofreading is essential,” a blog post by Brian Lawler at Premedia Trends on GraphicArtsOnline.com, was born from an experience similar to mine that had fueled my earlier post: distress at a potentially good book brought down by failure to have it edited and/or proofread.

Mr. Lawler speaks of grimacing at the typographical errors and blanching at a factual error. Yes, exactly, although I, with the book I was trying to read, was grimacing at the lack of editing and proofreading and blanching at “research” that went in the face of the (typeset, not handwritten) words on the source.

Mr. Lawler observes that “one of the most intriguing thoughts of good typography and good printing is that when it is done really well – people don’t notice.” Another “yes, exactly!” The same is true for good editing and proofreading, and for the same reason. People notice poor layout, errors, inconsistencies or poor grammar. Those things jolt the senses, and then it is the problems — the causes for the jolts — that are seen. Sometimes they practically slap you in the face. Painful. Good editing polishes out the causes for the potential jolts. Then the content, the information, the message can shine through as intended.

To quote again from Mr. Lawler: “hire a proofreader! As passionate as an author is about his subject, there is no substitute for the person with the red pen. This book needed one, and did not get proofread by a skillful editor, and that’s a shame.”

Another potentially good, and potentially recommendable, book bites the dust.