talk a presentation is a journey so with
me in this journey with me today or
tonight I will take you to three routes
and these three roads will take us to
one destination and this destination is
the idea that I would like to share with
you tonight before that
I’m Zakir your driver I am currently a
proofreading consultant with more than
seven years experience the first two
years I provided the proofreading
service on part-time basis the next two
years I did that on a full-time basis
and since last three years I changed the
career from a proofreader to a
proofreading consultant because I
believe it with this position I can not
only help my clients I can also help
many other proofreaders out there okay
are you ready to go with me to these
three roads now yeah okay now buckle up
and let’s get started okay the first row
is about books okay may I see hands off
those of you in front of me who love
reading books love reading books okay
okay thank you thank you for your
participation in this survey okay if not
all many of you love reading books
reading books makes us what we are today
some people say we are what we read
directly is that great teacher yeah
however however do you know before we
before a book is published there is one
process that is very crucial that makes
the book as perfect as it is
without this process the book will not
look as it will not be as easy to
understand as
yes nice to skip as it is now we move to
do the next road first before we get to
the idea shall we okay the second row is
about being a particular and attention
to details okay if we go to for example
if you go to Kuala Lumpur we can see a
lot of couplets starting with W correct
and how about we go to Malacca we can
see a lot of couplets starting with and
correct
okay from the perspective of a
proofreader what makes our eyes and our
heart so feel ill when we see w become a
mess and become w okay let me show you
this can you see the couplet in front
do you read w WM but but do you know
those are actually M okay M should stand
straight like that and a w bit slanted
like that okay yeah the point here is if
you can pay attention to such a detail
or to such an extent you can become a
proofreader okay we are not done yet
with the second good let me show you
this one m and w we have discussed that
what about this one okay do you read one
times ten to the power of negative five
do you read so okay but to the eyes of a
prophet like me I read that as 1 X 10 to
the power of five point five okay let me
show you the correct expression the
correct mathematical expression for one
times 10 to the power of negative five
do you notice the difference between
them alphabet X and multiplication
symbol and how about the – and a minus
sign if you can find such a slight
difference between the two symbols the
two alphabet you can become a
proofreader okay we are not done yet
with the W
do you hear that I said W but do you see
W there or double V okay some people
call us proofreader as people or not
suffering from obsessive-compulsive
disorder OCD but the fact is we don’t
mind just call that just call us that
because we need that ability and we need
that skill to survive in our
proofreading career we need to be that
go to pay attention to detail to find /
difference between slight difference
between two things okay let’s go to the
third row shall we okay spelling and
grammar okay nowadays we are living in
Internet age every day we write emails
every day we make Facebook was rewrite
famous pose but the thing is some of us
especially are those providers who are
very particular about spelling and
grammar we are very good at identifying
mistakes right after hitting the submit
post after we saw me only time we
noticed I made a mistake I made a
spelling I made a grave mistake that’s
the problem if it’s an email sent to a
friend or Facebook post on our Facebook
profile we have not so much to worry but
what about we make such a silly mistake
when we apply for a job and that job is
what particularly need us to be
particular but we feel at the very first
step and applying for the job which is
to write a grammar put fat in mail or we
are the type of person who don’t mind
when we call or when we are called
grammar nazi we just call it so because
we don’t mind because we really need
need to be a gram energy because people
pay us or especially the providers to
find grammar mistakes so a lattice
go to this definition of proof reading
okay first before that what is a proof a
proof is a material being proof read and
the task of a proof reader is to find
mistakes and correct the mistakes before
a book is published before the book is
published we must do this step in order
to make the book great in order to make
the book as perfect as possible the
question is can we prove read our own
document can we find mistakes in the
thing that we write ourself for example
last year when I wrote my own thesis I
prefer my own disease yes so I can
safely say that we can proofread our own
document but if we follow the formula
that I that I have in front I believe we
can produce a very well proof read
document so this formula is divided into
five and it’s derived one from the word
proof reader shall we discuss the
formula one by one shall we let’s go
further to the first part of the formula
P R in order for us to produce the best
proofreading result we must first be
either PR stands why PR stands for put
to rest
put what – let’s put our I stressed we
must rest our eyes before we start
proofreading the document that o is
symbol is symbolizing the our eyes okay
yeah why why must we rest our eyes
because we want to delete all possible
visual memory that our and our brain
keep if we still keep them in our mind
we will tend to skip mistake that
we write ourself however the question is
how long should we rest our eyes there’s
no definite answer but the guideline is
it must not it must be long enough for
us to erase all the visual memory and it
must be sure enough for us to meet the
deadline
okay however sometimes we don’t have the
time to put our eyes to last so what can
we can we do
we should find a Pierre we are also
stands for proof reader why proof reader
has fresh eyes they do not know what is
there in your document so they most
possibly will not escape any mistakes in
the document and so most possibly also
that appropriate document will be very
good in terms of its quality okay so PR
stands for put to rest and provider or I
okay let’s move to the third part of the
formula the f what the f the F here
stands for final the final here refers
to the final version of the document we
must proofread the final version only
okay the thing is about proofreading
it’s a very tiring it’s a very
time-consuming process so it’s we have
to try each and every paragraph we have
to check each and every sentence we have
to check each and every word we have to
check each and every letter you’re not
done yet we have to check each and every
space really so that’s why we have to be
very very careful especially when it
comes to proofread the document and we
want to make it the best quality that
the best as possible but make sure is a
final version of the document if by the
final here it means you will not add any
more content into the document you will
add anything because you believe sure
you are really sure that that’s the
gentlemen and you can start profiting
the document okay let’s move to the
first part of the formula R in re here
is taken from two words read and
research okay
proofreading is a process that requires
a lot of decision-making and sometimes
the decision is really hard to make that
we have to do an extensive read and
research for example if the profile does
not know where the disclaimer rule is
here or there or whether a word fits the
context of a test or not so they will
find a additionally to help them
so with this read any research with the
first part of the formula the best
proofreading result will be produced
let’s move to the last part of the
formula a B a B here is an abbreviation
for attention to detail we used to
remember when we discussed W M –
multiplication symbol earlier if you can
be can if you can base to touch that and
attention you can produce the best proof
reading result so PR o F re ad is the
formula that I create in order to advise
profit us out there for them to get the
best proof reading result let me show
you this line an example of a document
that earlier it contains a lot of
mistakes and errors and it’s then given
to a proofreader to be proof read and
after the process is done the document
is finally easy to understand and
published a by a reputable journal ok so
here we are to our destination we have
gone through three roads the first one
about book the second one is about being
able to pay attention to detail and the
that one is about spelling and grammar’
so what’s the point what’s the main
point what’s the idea here
the idea is even a great book needs
proofreading ok you can be your own
proof reader for your own document so in
order for you to produce the best
document please never skip this process
proofread your document ok before I end
my speech I would like to share with you
this question that I received recently
Zaki with the development of technology
we have all those mobile app all those
software what’s the future of
proofreaders as much as I can see now I
can say that proofreaders future is
still there ok for example I keep this
sentence to a computer software to check
whether it’s grammatically the
grammatically correct or not and
according to that computer software I
want to eat an elephant is a grammatical
sentence however if you give that
sentence to a human proofreader the
pro-freedom will tell you are you crazy
ok great prophet a great book thank you
have a good evening
[Applause] [Music]