Proofreading for non-fiction writers

Your message. Your voice. Your words. Your reputation. All of these matter – to you, to your audience and to me.

No matter what you write, you want your readers to trust you and engage with you. That starts with delivering a message that is clear, error-free and consistent with the image you want to project. That’s where a professional proofreader can help.

Hi! I’m Agnès, a friendly freelance proofreader with a background in languages, literature, financial printing and training. A member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), I am CIEP-trained and constantly striving to hone my skills.

Agnès Lombard - Precision Proof
I’m French, and I realise that entrusting your English text to a French proofreader may sound counterintuitive. But learning English as a foreign language means I had to learn its rules and spend hours practising them. Of course, I have an accent! But who doesn’t? Yours might even be stronger than mine …

Who do I work with?

I work with anyone who writes non-fiction text, but especially:
Businesses & Agencies - Precision Proof

Businesses & Agencies

You’ve spent months building a new website, hours labouring over the words for a brochure, or your team has worked tirelessly to write an important report or create user manuals … Yet all it takes to shatter the professional image you’ve worked so hard to project is a couple of spelling mistakes, grammatical errors or typos – and when that happens, you lose clients.

You can avoid this by using a professional proofreader.

Let's work together
Schools

Schools

Your website … prospectus … GCSE and A-level booklets … yearbook … As your school’s shopfront they need to give parents and prospective pupils/students confidence that your institution is the right choice for them. That requires consistent formatting and layout, and the absence of typos, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, which are not only embarrassing but also undermine your credibility as an education provider. A professional proofreader can help with this.

Let's work together
Publishers

Publishers

I am a CIEP-trained proofreader who can proofread in both English and French, working either in Word using Track Changes or Acrobat Reader using the commenting tools or BSI stamps. With a background in languages, literature, financial printing and training, I have worked on non-fiction books on topics as diverse as AI, gender balance in the workplace, inclusive intelligence, child marriage (checking a translation from English into French) and a personal memoir. I don’t proofread fiction.

Let's work together

How does it work?

Discuss requirements

Submit file /sample

Receive quotation

Pay deposit

Document is proofread

Proofread document is returned

Make final payment

Discuss requirements

Submit file /sample

Receive quotation

Pay deposit

Document is proofread

Proofread document is returned

Make final payment

Why pay for proofreading

Why pay for proofreading?

Of course, you can check spelling and grammar at the click of a button, but is that really good enough?

Spellcheck will not catch words that are spelled correctly but used in the wrong place (such as ‘you must now’ instead of ‘you must not’), while grammar checkers lack the ability to take context, tone of voice, audience and the end goal of the text into account. That’s why proofreading still requires a human touch. Besides, a trained proofreader looks for so much more than typos, misspellings, grammatical errors and punctuation issues.

TELL ME MORE

Client feedback

‘Agnès has proved her ability to be particular and thorough in her proofreading for our projects on more than one occasion. Depending on the level of complexity, she offers the right number of reviews, comments, and queries where the content is unclear.

She is our ‘go-to’ proofreader for any project, large or small. We cannot recommend her work highly enough!’

Karin Carruthers, Scream Blue Murder

‘Working with Agnès was an absolute pleasure and the service I received was excellent. Great levels of communication throughout, exceeded the deadline set and the standard of work was exceptional. Highly recommend.’

Rebecca Davies, HR Ready

Agnès worked for us on a difficult book project where the subject matter related to a historical murder during the early days of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. As such, it required excellent proofreading skills and attention to detail as content needed to be factually correct and well edited.

Agnès’ finished work was exemplary and demonstrated an ability to handle a technically difficult text in a highly professional and polished manner.

John Monaghan, Shanway Press

‘The best word to describe the proofread/appraisal that Agnès carried out on my website is ‘forensic’. Her eye for detail is mind-blowing. She not only proofread the content – picking up details that I had missed – but also made helpful suggestions to improve some of the more technical aspects.

Agnès produced a professional five-page report in which she detailed things I needed to put right – from extra spacing between words and incorrect punctuation to inconsistencies in formatting and the absence of title tabs. And it was all done in a friendly, respectful manner.

I have implemented every suggestion in the report and my website is better for it. I would thoroughly recommend Agnès of Precision Proof for all proofreading projects, both online and in print.’

Anne Gillion, ASG Editorial

‘I am really pleased with the format of the feedback you have given. It’s taken me just 20 mins to work through it all and update the slide deck. The level of detail is really helpful, and I plan to share this with the facilitator.’

Angela Andrews, Head of Client Success, OnTrack

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Why not say hello? I’m sure you’ve got lots of questions about proofreading and I’d be delighted to answer them. My email is agnes@precisionproof.co.uk, or you can use the Contact form if you have a project you’d like to discuss.

So what are you waiting for? Don’t be bashful (even if I am)!

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

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A big ’thank you’ to my friend Mary Doggett of ETT Photography for taking and supplying the pictures for this website. You can find out about her and see more of her work on her website.

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