Proofreader's Marks: An Almost Standard Set

Author: J. M. McCormick

Last Update: September 22, 2009

This table is provided for anyone who has is called upon to edit someone else's work and for anyone whose work has been edited.  It may not be a perfect compilation, nor is it completely standard, but it is fairly close.  The reader should be aware that very few people, other than professional editors and proofreaders, actually use any sort of standard system.  You should, therefore, expect a lot of variation in what you will see and adapt accordingly.

Symbol	Meaning	Example
	Begin a Paragraph	. . . at -15.0 mV.  The crystal structure . . .
	Delete
	Letter
	Word
	Insert
	Letter
	Word
	Period
	Comma
	Apostrophe
	Quotes
	Superscript (move up)
	Subscript (move down)
	Capitalize
	Uppercase (alternate with mark made in the margin)
	Lower Case (because this looks like delete, some people will also write the letter in lower case near this proofreading mark)
	Lowercase (alternate with mark made in the margin)
	Insert or Delete Space
	Close space
	Separate
	Move
	Reverse
NC	Not Clear	Turning the dial to 60, the machine started.
	Formatting (formatting corrections sometime appear in the margin of the line in which the error occurred)
	Spelling
	Spelling (alternate, with  mark made in the margin), this can also mean spell out.
	Font (note the use of a “/” to separate multiple corrections on one line). Sometimes “wf” is used to indicate an incorrect font.	(in the margin)
stet	Let the original version stand.  Used to indicate when the proofreader made a mistake or changed his/her mind.