Legal proofreading is a skill which requires not only an eye for detail, but also an ability to see the big picture. How well a legal proofreader does his job directly affects the quality of the output that the end user receives.

A legal proofreader's primary function is one of overall quality control. Legal proofreaders must not only find errors such as typos, but must also be on the alert for a number of other issues, such as:

• ambiguous instructions
• vague or incorrect style instructions
• consistency (names, numbering schemes, style)
• typeface
• font(s)
• folios
• correct spelling
• correct grammar
• sense
• legal citations

As a legal proofreader you will be expected to quality check the documents created by wordprocessors and typesetters. Did the wordprocessor introduce typos? Did she miss portions of text that need to be inserted into the documents? Is the typeface correct? Are elements bold or italic if they are supposed to be?

Legal proofreaders find mistakes in documents and communicate all corrections that need to be made to the wordprocessing operator or typesetter using standard proofreading marks.

Once a legal proofreader has marked the errors to be corrected, the document is returned to a wordprocessor or typesetter who is tasked with following the proofreader's marks to correct the mistakes found in the document. Once those corrections have been made, the document is once again sent to the legal proofreader. This process continues until the documents is perfect. It is then sent back to the attorney or author of the document.

Remember—legal proofreader's are not copy editors! Do not re-write copy to improve upon the style of an attorney's writing or fix run-on sentences! If something reads poorly or doesn't seem to make sense, query the item (bring it to the attorney's attention) and let her address the problem.