It's Easy to Overlook What's Familiar

Years ago, I worked as a proofreader at a print shop. An order came to print stationery for a local unit of the Red Cross.

Prior to printing, I was going over the order with a Red Cross staffer. Out of a sense of precaution, I asked her (as I recollect now) to please check the contact information (phone number, fax number, etc.) near the top of the letterhead. She did, and thanked me. (“Aren’t you smart,” she said--or words similar to that.) Something in that section of the letterhead was out of date and needed correcting. We were about to print, as I recall, thousands of copies of this stationery, and this would have proved an obvious, embarrassing error. With inaccurate information, we just might have had to print the whole job over again. This oversight also might have caused this person to get a “black eye” in the eyes of her supervisors.

Gaffes like this can take place when you are so familiar with a project, you take things for granted, and you don’t review the details properly. A proofreader can help you overcome such pitfalls of neglect or omission.

Hiring a proofreader can provide extra insurance for a print order well done and well executed. It could also save you a lot of money, by protecting you from the cost of a job do-over, and that of lost time.