How to Become a Proofreader: Qualifications, Resources, and More

A proofreader performs a final review of a written text and corrects any errors before it’s published or printed. They make sure that there are no surface-level problems, such as:

• Spelling mistakes and typos
• Grammatical errors
• Inconsistencies in the text
• Formatting errors
• Style problems (if the author or publication uses a style guide)

Proofreaders are often freelancers, although they can sometimes be employed full-time.

Is proofreading the same as editing?

No, proofreading and editing aren’t the same. As a rule, editors make larger and more comprehensive changes, whereas proofreaders limit themselves to giving a piece the last bit of polish it needs to be published.

Proofreaders and editors tend to charge different rates, especially when charging by the word (instead of by the hour). Proofreaders work much faster than editors, so they usually charge a lower rate per word.

In reality, many editors carry out many proofreading tasks and vice versa, but editing and proofreading are still distinct skill sets. Many clients may not know the difference and may have to be warned of what to expect from a proofreading service so that there are no nasty surprises.

We spoke about this with Cassie Armstrong, a member of a society for editors and proofreaders called the Bay Area Editors’ Forum (BAEF). Cassie, who has more than 16 years of freelance editing experience, cautioned against mixing the two. She told us, “The skills needed for proofreading differ from copyediting skills.”

“Learn the difference,” she added. “Do the job you’re paid to do.”

To become a proofreader, you don’t need any specific qualifications. However, you need certain skills.

Most obviously, you’ll need strong attention to detail and excellent language skills, including a knack for spelling and grammar.

Ultimately, you’ll gain a very intimate knowledge of grammar rules, but especially in the beginning, it’s useful to be able to instinctively recognize when something is wrong, even if you don’t immediately know why.

We got in touch with Sarah Larson, an experienced proofreader who set up her own business, Sarah Proofreads, 4 years ago. She said that many freelance proofreaders get into the field after realizing how frequently they caught errors in their everyday lives. “Many proofreaders I know started out because they would get mildly infuriated when finding a typo in a book,” she said.

Larson also noted that native-level English fluency is important as a skill for proofreaders. “Most companies will only work with native English speakers,” she told us.

How to test your proofreading skills

To check whether your language skills are good enough for you to offer proofreading services, you can try out one of the many proofreading tests that are available online.

For instance, there’s one test on the blog of an editing company called ProofreadNOW. There’s also an extensive set of exercises on the website for the UK’s biggest editing and proofreading society, the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP). However, these cost money, and you’ll have to watch out for the differences between British and American English if you take any of them.

Other skills proofreaders need

In addition to language skills, there are other essential skills you’ll need to get started:

• Communication: This is especially crucial as a freelancer. Proofreaders communicate with clients not only about practical matters like rates and deadlines but also about the client’s writing. This requires a clear but respectful approach, especially when it comes to criticism, which should be constructive and professional.
• Time management: Because you’re working independently as a proofreader, you have to manage your own time to meet your clients’ deadlines.
• Basic IT skills: Proofreaders often need to use software like Microsoft Office and Google Docs. You may also have to use other tools like PDF markup software (many publishing companies prefer to work with files in PDF format).
• Networking skills: Many proofreaders are freelancers, and they need to be able to attract clients. Networking skills are essential for building relationships and leveraging them to win new clients.
• Marketing skills: These are important for the same reason networking skills are—because you’ll find more clients if you know how to market yourself (e.g., through social media or proper website SEO).
• Familiarity with style guides: A style guide is a set of standards for writing, editing, and formatting documents. Not everyone uses one, but they’re very common. You can learn style guidelines as you go along, but it’ll make matters easier if you’re familiar with the basics of the most popular guides, such as AP style and the Chicago Manual of Style.

Can I become a proofreader without any qualifications?

You don’t need any formal qualifications to work as a proofreader (including a college degree). That said, they can help.

Many proofreaders do have degrees in fields like English or journalism. There are also niche types of proofreading that require more specialized qualifications. For example, in academic proofreading, you may be required to hold a degree in the subject area you want to work in (e.g., a science degree for proofreading scientific papers).

Larson, who mostly works in fiction, told us that most clients never ask her for her qualifications. “In the world of proofreading, experience becomes a much more valuable thing than a fancy degree,” she said.

Courses and certificates

If you want to give yourself an edge over the competition, you don’t necessarily have to get a four-year degree. There are several popular proofreading courses offered by universities and editors’ associations. These can take anywhere from a few weeks to several years to complete.

We spoke to one member of the BAEF who has had a proofreading and editing business since 2014. They took a certification course from UC San Diego and said it helped them land jobs, saying that it “solidified my commitment to the field and showed potential clients that I was serious.”

Larson, for her part, took the Proofread Anywhere course, and said she thought that it was a great investment. “It was pricey ($497, to be exact), but so worth it for me. It’s served as a foundation for my future,” she said.

These steps will get you on your way to becoming a full-fledged proofreading professional.

1. Decide which type of proofreading you want to do

There are many different types of proofreading to choose from, including:

• Fiction books
• Academic papers
• Website content
• Blog articles
• Resumes
• Translations

It’s often a good idea to specialize rather than trying to be a jack of all trades. This makes it easier to find jobs. We spoke to Marc Hardgrove, CEO of The HOTH, who told us that “Through years of working with skilled proofreaders, I can confidently state that … it’s much more probable that you’ll get contacted if you concentrate on a particular area.”

One professional proofreader we contacted, Catherine Turner, confirmed this. “When you list a particular genre on your website or marketing materials, it makes your potential client feel more comfortable about working with you; they feel confident that you know what you’re doing,” she said.

How to pick a proofreading niche

Pick a type of content that you’re interested in and that matches your skill set. For instance, if you have a background in medicine, finance, or law, you’ll be able to do very well proofreading academic or business content.

Although in the best-case scenario, you’ll know which proofreading specialty you want to choose from the get-go, don’t worry if it takes you a while to figure this out—or if you change your mind once you’ve done a few projects and find you want to switch niches. All the same, how you want to specialize is something to bear in mind when you’re starting out.

2. Consider extra training

If you don’t yet feel like a consummate expert on grammar and syntax, check out some of the proofreading courses we linked above before you start looking for jobs.

Catherine Turner strongly recommended getting training before you take on proofreading work. “Reputation is everything to a proofreader, so taking on work before you hone your skills could end in disaster,” she cautioned. “These days, people are very quick to jump on social media when they’re unhappy with a service they’ve received.”

In addition to your language skills, some proofreading courses will also address related practical skills that you need to succeed as a freelancer, such as how to deal with clients and use the types of software you’ll be expected to use.

Turner, who has six professional certificates, advised that you’ll probably want to take multiple courses if you continue with proofreading long-term. “If you want to build a full-time career out of proofreading, understand that you will probably need to take more than one course over the duration of your career.”

3. Update your resume

With any job, you should tailor your resume to the role you’re applying for. Proofreading is no exception.

If you’ve ever worked in an office setting, you probably did some kind of proofreading just in the course of doing business—even if it was just checking that a presentation you made was free of typos. Make sure you include information about these duties in your new proofreading resume. It’s okay to emphasize them, but don’t claim anything that isn’t true.

Make sure you remember to proofread your resume. If there are any mistakes on it, you’ll make a very bad first impression.

Turner said that clients don’t ask for her resume very often, but she still thinks it’s important to have a good one. “If you’re a newbie proofreader, I do recommend taking the time to create a basic resume. It might be the one thing that makes you stand out from other proofreaders the potential client contacted.”

She also said that new proofreaders could take a slightly different approach in their resumes: “As you may not have much experience yet, you can create a skills-based resume rather than an experience-based one,” she suggested.

4. Look into job-seeking platforms

There are two types of proofreading jobs you can look for:

• Full-time: It’s possible to work as a full-time proofreader (meaning you’ll be traditionally employed by a company). Jobs like this sometimes crop up with publishing houses or businesses that create a lot of content. They aren’t particularly common, but it’s worth watching for them on job sites like Indeed.
• Freelance: If you’re new to proofreading, you’ll normally start out with freelance work. Fortunately, there’s a lot of this work available online.

Larson noted that full-time proofreading jobs are highly coveted, so recruiters for these jobs will likely want someone with a degree or at least plenty of experience. For freelance work, on the other hand, the requirements will be less strict.

Popular freelance job boards

You can get paid to proofread and find proofreading jobs on any of the following sites:

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• Freelancer
• FlexJobs
• Scribbr
• Scribendi
• Proofreading Pal

Job boards like this do have downsides. They can be oversaturated with workers—you’ll be competing with millions of other freelancers—and the pay is often on the low side. Larson told us she rarely used them.

However, they can be good places to land your first couple of jobs and begin building a portfolio that you can use to score more desirable gigs in the future.

5. Sign up for at least two job-seeking platforms and look for work

Once you’ve completed step 4, go ahead and sign up for two or three sites, depending on which look like a good fit for you. You’ll probably need to submit your resume or complete a form detailing your qualifications and experience.

Once your profile is complete, you’re ready to start looking for jobs. You’ll have to pitch yourself to the clients you want to work for. As a new proofreader, it can help to offer to work for them on a trial basis or offer a “free sample,” which we’ll discuss in more detail below.

6. Vet your options

Before agreeing to work with a company or client, research them thoroughly. Visit their website, see if they’re on LinkedIn, and if they’re a large enough employer, look at their reviews on websites like Glassdoor. If they’re an individual, check out their star rating on whatever freelance platform you found them through.

Take particular care when vetting anyone who requests a unique sample of your work before hiring you. Many legitimate employers do this, but sometimes it can also be a ploy to get free services. There are also job ads that are simply scams to get your personal information.

Larson noted that you should be wary of any company that asks for personal information or wants you to make a purchase before working together. “This is a very common scam that I’ve seen posted a lot about on proofreading Facebook groups,” she said.

Larson also recommended asking for upfront payments if you’re working with a new client. “Make sure you’re asking for half of payment upfront before you begin work,” she said. “You don’t want to risk having completed $1,000 of work and then never hear from that person again.”

7. Network

Word of mouth is one of the best ways to get proofreading clients. Both individuals and businesses often use personal contacts to find proofreaders. After all, it’s reassuring to know that someone else has had a good experience with a service provider before you hire them.

When you build your professional network, begin with the people you already know. Tell them you’re offering proofreading services, and use social media to help get the word out.

Larson suggested looking for editing and proofreading groups on Facebook and posting on Instagram using relevant hashtags. She found this strategy better than using job boards, which she said were very competitive.

She told us that she decided early on to “work on networking and marketing through social media to gain the majority of my clients,” adding that “it worked very well for me!”

You might also want to consider joining an editing society as a way of networking; you’ll forge contacts who might point you toward jobs. In the US, the most prominent societies are:

• The Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA)
• ACES: The Society for Editing (also known as the American Copyeditors Society)

There are also many smaller local organizations around the country, so do some research to find out what’s in your area.

8. Print business cards

You might prefer to leave this step until later, but if you’re going to attend in-person networking events, the people you meet need to be able to find you. Business cards are a good way to promote your services and make it easy for people to contact you or pass on your information to others.

It’s fairly cheap and easy to design a business card on sites like Canva and Vistaprint. Include your name, your services, your rates, and ideally also a website address.

9. Set up a website

You don’t need amazing computer skills (or a lot of money) to set up a website. There are platforms like WordPress and Wix that you can learn to use relatively easily, and they’re not very expensive. (In fact, it’s possible to set up a no-frills website for free.)

Note that only some website-building platforms (including Wix and WordPress) include web hosting as part of their package, whereas others don’t. If your platform isn’t all-inclusive, you’ll have to find a separate hosting option (try Bluehost or SiteGround).

We asked Sarah Larson about the process of setting up her website. Her opinion was that free website-building services are best avoided. “These are often much more limited in customizability and also just don’t look very professional,” she said, noting that a URL like “sarahproofreads.freewebsiteservice.com doesn’t look too great.”

Instead, she told us that she invested in Elementor, which she called “a massive game-changer.”

10. Offer discounts or freebies to get started

If you’re getting into proofreading with little or no experience, you’ll need to prove yourself. Until then, you probably won’t be able to demand high rates.

However, it can cause problems if you undersell yourself. For one, charging rock-bottom prices makes you look inexperienced. It can also lock you into working for a low rate if your clients continue to use your services. Renegotiating your prices later can be touchy.

A good way to avoid committing to a low rate but still attract new clients is to offer “special discounts” or “free samples”—completing a bit of work on a trial basis before you and the client commit to the full job.

11. Start building your portfolio

If you have a portfolio to send to prospective clients or employers, you’ll look much more professional. It doesn’t have to be huge, but it should feature at least three high-quality samples. You can include before-and-after examples of documents you’ve proofread, and eventually client testimonials.

There are many sites online where you can build a portfolio. Check out sites like Muckrack or Contently, for example. If you prefer, you can also host your portfolio on the website you built in step 9.

Larson has her portfolio on her website, and it includes images of the books she has proofread, with a carousel of client testimonials. She recommends asking for testimonials at the end of every proofreading job so that you can include these in your portfolio.

12. Learn about managing your own freelance business

If you end up operating as a freelancer (rather than an employee), you’ll need to deal with the day-to-day aspects of running your own business, such as:

• Monitoring your own finances
• Budgeting
• Deciding your rates
• Dealing with taxes
• Marketing yourself

Another reason it’s helpful to be part of an organization like the EFA is that they can give you advice on how to run a business as well as on proofreading and editing skills.

Also consider joining the Freelancers Union, which is a free-to-join membership organization that provides resources and benefits to independent workers across the country.

Larson told us that the Proofread Anywhere course she took was an invaluable source of information when she was learning how to start her business. “It wasn’t entirely comprehensive, but it at least allowed me to know what the steps were so I could go into more depth using other resources,” she said.

She also recommended YouTube as a source of information for aspiring business owners. “I can’t even begin to fathom the number of hours I spent on there learning how to design a website, fix this problem, fix that problem,” she said.

The great thing about proofreading is that the only materials you really need are a computer and an internet connection. However, there are other tools you should seriously consider getting:

• Microsoft Word: Microsoft Word is the most popular word-processing software in the world, and most clients will expect you to use it. Its “track changes” feature is particularly useful; this allows you and your client to review the changes you make. You can also use Word to leave comments on the text.
• Grammarly or Ginger: These are tools for checking your grammar and spelling. They aren’t foolproof and sometimes return false positives, but they add an extra layer of security by catching mistakes you’d otherwise have missed (although you should only use them as a final check after you’ve proofread everything yourself). Grammarly also has a plagiarism checker.
• Cloud storage systems: It’s a good idea to use these to protect against computer problems that might cause you to lose your files. Google Drive and Dropbox are both popular cloud storage systems.
• Antivirus software: Similarly, to protect yourself, make sure to use antivirus software. This is a good idea no matter who you are, but it’s especially crucial when you rely on your computer to earn a living.
• Payment options: PayPal is a popular choice for receiving payments, despite its higher fees. You can also try other options with different fee structures, such as Stripe, Venmo, or Zelle.
• Software for invoicing and accounting: Consider investing in a tool like QuickBooks, which lets you create professional invoices, track payments, and manage your financial records. You can also use Excel or Google Sheets to track your finances, clients, and other important business information.
• Style guides: Although you can find the rules to many style guides online, not all of the information online will be reliable, and verifying it can be a pain. It’s often more efficient to simply purchase a style guide (either a physical copy or an ebook).
• Other books for proofreaders: Sarah Larson also recommended “The Best Punctuation Book, Period” as a resource. “It breaks down all the different punctuation rules (the most complex part of grammar) across the four main style guides, CMOS, AP, APA, and MLA,” she said. “It’s truly an excellent resource, and I always keep it in my desk.”

You can calculate the money you can make as a proofreader in one of two ways, depending on how you charge:

1. By the word
2. By the hour

The Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) suggests rates of $0.02–$0.049 per word or $31–$45 per hour for proofreading.

These suggested rates are only approximations. To decide the exact rates you’ll charge, you’ll have to take into account many other factors:

• What kind of shape the text is in (i.e., how many errors there are to catch)
• The turnaround (when your deadline is)
• How complex the writing is
• How technical the writing is
• How much experience you have

When you’re just getting your start, you might end up taking jobs for closer to $20 per hour, but once you have a little experience under your belt, look into raising your rates.

Larson told us that she started at an even lower hourly rate, and that this has increased over the years. Regarding her current rates, she explained, “I just say that $0.01 is my base rate… If I were to average, I’d say my per-word rate puts me at around $75 an hour.”

But regarding her starting rate, she said, “It wasn’t even near my current rate. It was only $0.001 per word!”