Proofreading traditionally means reading a proof copy of a text in order to detect and correct any errors. Modern proofreading often requires reading copy at earlier stages as well.
A proof copy is a version of a manuscript that has been typeset after copyediting. Proof typescripts often contain typographical errors introduced by mistyping (hence the word typo to refer to misplaced or incorrect characters).
Proof Reading
Traditionally, a proofreader checks the typeset copy and marks any errors using standard proof correction marks (such as those specified in style manuals, by house style, or, more broadly, by the international standard ISO 5776, or, for English, the British Standard BS-5261:2). This process can be known as a line edit. The proof is then returned to the typesetter for correction, and in many cases the production of a second proof copy (often known as a revise). Proofreading is considered a specific skill that must be learned because it is the nature of the mind to automatically correct errors. Someone not trained in proofreading may not see errors such as missing words or improper usage because their mind is showing them what it is trained to recognize as correct.
The term proofreading is sometimes used incorrectly to refer to copy-editing. This is a separate activity, although there is some overlap between the two. Proofreading consists of reviewing any text, either hard copy (on paper) or electronic copy (on a computer) and checking for typos and formatting errors. This may be done either against an original document or "blind" (without checking against any other source). Many modern proofreaders are also required to take on some light copy-editing duties, such as checking for grammar and consistency issues.
Proofreading in biology
The term proofreading is used to refer to the error-correcting processes involved in DNA replication. In bacteria, all three DNA polymerases (I, II, and III) have the ability to proofread, using 3'->5' exonuclease activity. In eukaryotes only the polymerases that deal with the elongation (?, ? and ?) have proofreading ability (3'->5' exonuclease activity).
Copy editing
Copy editing (also copyediting) is the editorial work that an editor does to make formatting changes and improvements to a manuscript; copy (as a noun) refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, and publication. The editor effecting this is a copy editor; an organization's highest-ranking copy editor, or the supervising editor of a group of copy editors, is the copy chief.
There is no universal form for the job and job title; in magazine and book publishing, it often is one word (copyediting). The newspaper business spells it either as two words (copy editing) or hyphenates it (copy-editing); the hyphenated form is British. Similarly, the term copy editor may be spelled either as a one word-, or a two word-, or as a hyphenated compound term.
The copy editor's job is summarized in the Five Cs: to make the copy clear, correct, concise, comprehensible, and consistent. Typically, copy editing involves correcting spelling, terminology, punctuation, grammatical, and semantic errors; ensuring that the typescript adheres to the publisher's house style; and adding standardized headers, footers, headlines, etc. These stylistic elements must be addressed and determined before the typesetter can prepare a final proof copy.
The copy editor is expected to ensure that the text flows, that it is sensible, fair, and accurate, and that it will provoke no legal problems for the publisher. Newspaper copy editors are sometimes responsible for choosing which news service wire copy the newspaper will use, and for rewriting it in accordance with house style. Often, the copy editor is the only person other than the author to read an entire text before its publication. Newspaper editors often regard copy editors as the newspaper's last line of accurate defense.
A copy editor may abridge text, by "cutting" and "trimming" it, to reduce the length of a novel or an article, either to fit broadcast or publishing limits or to improve its meaning. This may involve omitting parts of the text, but sometimes it is necessary to rewrite uncut parts to bridge the missing details and plot; some abridgements are only slightly shorter than the originals, but others may be much abridged, particularly when a literary classic is abridged for the children's market.
Distributed Proofreaders
Distributed Proofreaders (commonly abbreviated as DP or PGDP) is a project to support the development of e-texts for Project Gutenberg. Public domain works, typically books with expired copyright, are scanned by volunteers or culled from digitalization projects and the images are run through optical character recognition (OCR) software. Since OCR software is presently far from perfect, often a large number of errors appear in the resulting text. To deal with this, individual pages are made available to volunteers via a web-based interface to proofread, displaying the original page's image and the recognized text side-by-side. This effectively distributes the time-consuming error correction process, analogously to distributed computing.
Each page goes through up to three rounds of user proofreading and two rounds of user formatting, after which a "post-processer" combines the pages and prepares the text for uploading to Project Gutenberg. The editing process is similar to the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, which predates it by several years but is focused on the narrower topic of Christian texts.
Distributed Proofreaders was founded by Charles Franks in 2000 as an independent site to assist Project Gutenberg. Distributed Proofreaders became an official Project Gutenberg site in 2002. Distributed Proofreaders posted their 5,000th text to Project Gutenberg in October 2004, and their 10,000th in March 2007. As of March 2007 the 10,000+ DP-contributed texts comprised almost half of the nearly 21,000 works in Project Gutenberg.
There are many sites for freelancers. These are the most popular on the Internet:
To find it is more than sites for freelancers, you can take advantage of search. Frequently search for such phrases as, freelancer, online job, job for programmer (designer, copywriter, etc.), projects for freelancer or something similar
