About me

Hi! My name is Agnès.

I was born and raised in France but have been living in the UK since 2001 after twelve years spent in the US. This means my accent is a bit of a mixture and people usually place me as anything but French.

After studying International Studies, languages and literature I ended up working for years in financial printing and training, followed by a brief stint at a whisky distillery (yes, ‘whisky’ without an ‘e’ because it was English).

And then, I found out you can get paid to read! Bliss!

Agnès Lombard - Precision Proof

Many training courses later, I proofread non-fiction books, business and training documentation, school publications and translations between French and English. I love going through documents with a fine-tooth comb and the feeling of satisfaction that comes with finding just the right wording when reworking grammatically challenged sentences.

Yes, entrusting your English text to a French proofreader may sound counter-intuitive. But learning English as a foreign language means I had to learn the rules and spend hours practicing them. And just because I can’t pronounce a word doesn’t mean I can’t spell it!

I love living in Britain and have fallen in love with a few British institutions such as the ubiquitous cup of tea, pub lunches and British humour (I’m often on the receiving end of it at home!).

When I haven’t got my nose in a book for work or for fun I enjoy the simple things in life: spending time with friends and loved ones, gardening, dancing, having a laugh and dark chocolate.

Let’s connect on LinkedIn
Languages Precision Proof (1)
Publishers

One thing that comes across loud and clear when trawling through the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading’s online forums is that no one knows everything about the English language.

A good proofreader questions everything that doesn’t look right and then looks for the answer until a satisfactory (and reliable) one has been found. It’s also important to have a checklist and use it for every job.

To avoid having to search for the same thing over and over, I systematically bookmark useful blog posts, forum posts and articles about grammatical or spelling points. (You will find some of those on my Resources page.)

I also like to create cheat sheets, which I keep in alphabetical order for easy access.

Cheat Sheets
I have a project to discuss

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

Latest blogs

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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