AI, Proofreading, Publishing
Key Takeaways on the topic of proofreading:
Proofreading matters.
A human touch is necessary to vet context, humor, and idiosyncracies of the English language.
No one’s perfect but having an agency/proofreader as a second set of eyes is an advantage.
As we all dance with the possibilities of AI and the challenges of staffing, there are hard questions to answer. We embrace how AI can take clerical, research, and even sourcing tasks, allowing designers, account managers, and marketing departments to anchor their time in the creative process. Can proofing be one of those deferred I AI tasks?
The importance of proofing your work before sending it out into the world cannot be underestimated. And thanks to longtime AI products like simple spellcheck (we remember you Clippy) and the newer Grammarly, we can get a quick assist in a pinch—but nothing truly replaces an eye and ear for detail and context. That's where a proofreader (preferably human) comes in.
A classic stock image showing three adults around a larger than life tablet holding a magnifying glass to signify proofreading.
The proofreader has the job honor of taking a last look at everything and anything that leaves the shop to ensure that it all looks, reads, and sounds right. It means the proofreader needs to be familiar with each client's brand standards (Oxford comma or no?), can tell the difference between except and accept, can interpret context or humor, and have a basic understanding of the goal of each project to provide the most comprehensive edits, without creating more work for the rest of the team.
When putting your best foot forward, a simple grammatical or spelling error can become a glaring mistake, reflecting a sense of carelessness or unprofessionalism. Not a good first impression, in a time in which first impressions, can be the only impressions.
Take this magazine headline for example:
A vintage looking magazine spread with an ad for Whiteface in Jay New York. As it was fed into AI, Whiteface was changed to Paleface.
Or this Health Insurance Powerpoint:
A power point slide that reads Providing you with max benefits, but benefits is misspelled as benifits.
Or this makeup display:
A makeup counter showing bottled of foundation and concealer. The headline reads Enhance the skin your in, using your instead of you’re.
A unique and interesting example of a typo in action is the purposeful one, something that really gets under the skin of a proofreader. Coors Light recently displayed national ads in Times Square and the NY Times, among others, in which there was a glaring typo in the word “refreshment”, later referring to the mistake as a "case of the Mondays."
The next day, the brand unveiled its newest product, a limited edition case of beer called “Case of the Mondays,” designed specifically for the Monday after the Super Bowl. Was it all part of the plan? Seems so. People are talking.
Purposeful or not, an advantage of working with an agency like Trampoline is that you know the work will be proofed, edited, and reviewed so that the product can really sing. Now that's refershing.
