A piece of advice, proofreader to proofreader: never, never, never pay for proofreading exercises. Seriously: never. If a proofreading course boasts proofreading exercises as part of its offer, then the chances are you’re paying for them when you pay for the course. Which is insane, because the internet is awash with free proofreading exercises; you just need to know where to look.
And what’s more, these free proofreading exercises don’t just allow you to develop and refine your proofreading skills, they also gift you with an opportunity to gather large quantities of glowing testimonials.
I’ll supply you with an overview of three of these great opportunities in a moment.
Free Proofreading Exercises, Where to Find Them
All you need to do is offer your services, gratis, in replacement for testimonials (providing, of course, you do an perfect job, and why wouldn’t you?). In carrying out this free work, you’re recovery yourself money because you aren’t de facto paying for the exercises (in themselves or as part of a proofreading course) and you’re also honing your craft. What’s more you can place the resulting testimonials on your website, resume or other promotional material to help you gather genuine, paying proofreading opportunities! There de facto is no downside to this.
Now, here are just three of the places you should be looking:
1. Yahoo! Answers Sign up for Yahoo! Answers. Key in the quest phrases, ‘proofreading’, ‘proofreader’ or ‘proof reader’ and narrow your options down to ‘open questions’ only. You’ll be presented with a whole host of people looking to have documents proofread: essays, reports, dissertations, short stories, novels, that kind of thing. Now, these people aren’t looking to pay you for your services. Not in cash, anyway. However, you could ‘work for rep’. In other words, you say, “I’ll proofread your essay, so long as you supply me with a glowing testimonial (providing I earn it, of course).”
2. Constant Content Constant Content is a free-to-join website where freelance writers can sell their articles and pick up article-writing assignments. Constant Content has a very high editorial suitable and articles are routinely rejected due to errors or plain poor writing.
All you need to do is join up. Pop along to the forum (which you’ll need to join separately) and offer your services. Make it perfectly clear that you are a budding proof reader and you are gift your services gratis, otherwise you are likely to be viewed as a spammer attempting to drum-up business.
3. Duotrope On the face of it, Duotrope is a reserved supply for writers, but dig a wee deeper and you find a gigantic database of publishers. Lots of these publishers fall under the type of ‘small press’ and are unlikely to be able to afford the services of professional proof readers. So, when you get in touch gift free proofreading services in replacement for testimonials (providing you do a good job, of course), I’d be surprised if they didn’t jump at the opportunity to work with you.
Just think how impressive it will look on your resume or website to have testimonials from companies with names like Woodland Press, Hourglass Books and Permuted Press?
Well, what are you waiting for?
Good luck with all your proofreading endeavours!
Free Proofreading Exercises, Where to Find Them
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