Introduction

Some questions

If you're asking this question, you've passed the first test of proofreading – the pedantry test. A proofreader is (not surprisingly) someone who reads proofs. Just as a photographer might produce a set of proofs, so do publishers. A proof (or page proof) is a one-off set of prints that publishers or printers make for the sole purpose of being checked. Once this has been done to everyone's satisfaction, the print run can begin. It's a way of preventing mistakes being reproduced thousands of times. You might have noticed that the question in the heading has not really been answered. The truth is that it doesn't matter. Generally speaking, hyphenated or spaced words that become part of common language get condensed into one word (it wasn't all that long ago that "today" was spelt "to-day" and "paintbrush" was spelt "paint brush"). The nearest thing to a rule on this one is that you should be consistent.

How does it differ from copy editing?

When an author or copywriter finishes a piece of work, it is passed on to a copy editor. The copy editor may or may not have a specialised knowledge of the subject of the work (this will depend on





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