In today’s age of “Spellcheck”, “Autocorrect”, and “Grammarly®”, you may be wondering, “Do I really need a proofreader?”. Of course, the obvious answer coming from a proofreader-by-trade is, an emphatic yes! But, what do we do that your computer can’t? And, why do you even need us? It’s the small things that matter: missing letters, double words, incorrect use of words, punctuation errors, and words that have been autocorrected inappropriately. Simple spellchecking programs miss these mistakes . And it’s a problem. In fact, this problem is so widespread that these errors have infiltrated e-mails, advertisements, signage, newspaper and magazine articles, menus – the list is endless, and it’s embarrassing. Have we gotten lazy? Complacent perhaps? Maybe, we’ve stopped caring. After all, they’ll still get the general message – right? But, when you read a book, an article or even an e-mail and pick up on those errors as the reader, how does it make you feel? Frustrated? Like the writer hasn’t done their job properly? It’s unprofessional. Here’s one worse: What if it was your piece of writing? Take it from me. As a proofreader, I use a proofreader. In fact, one of the team will be going over this very text before we go to print – or publish – is perhaps more accurate. Which begs the question, shouldn’t my own writing as a proofreader be flawless? Now, let me tell you, the human brain works in funny ways . It doesn’t see our own mistakes. Repeated statements, overuse of words (think of the number of times you use “actually” or “quite” in your prose), sentences that are way too long, missing punctuation (I'm sure I have some here). The list goes on. Our brain has drawn up the plan, typed out the words, and ignored those little mistakes. And your proofreader can fix it. So, thanks for the words brain, and off to one of the team at Doclins for a decent once-over.