Proofreader’s Marks: An Almost Standard Set
Author: J. M. McCormick
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 -150 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 occured) | |
| Spelling |   |
|
| 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. |
Last Update: September 22, 2009