Proofed

Do you have one?

Style guides are invaluable when editing, proofreading, and creating content. At Proofed, we’ve worked with thousands of businesses, helping them create or modify style guides to fit their needs.

A good style guide addresses several areas:

1. Brand voice and tone. Your content creators should be aware of your brand’s voice and know what tone to use.

2. Grammar and punctuation. Punctuation impacts your writing, so use it with intention. Detail how and when to use semicolons, dashes, and hyphens. POV and specific dialects are also important for your team to know.

3. Formatting and layout. Header, subheader, font, spacing, hyperlink, list, and indentation guidelines should all be listed clearly.

4. Brand-specific language and terminology. Which words should be consistently used or not used? Do you say “client” or “customer”? When should you use industry jargon? Be sure to include examples and exceptions.

5. Image and media guidelines. Make sure your creators know the size and dimension, usage and attribution, video and audio embedding, and captioning and sourcing rules to use.

6. Accessibility guidelines. Do you have guidelines for alt text on images, descriptive video captions, easy-to-read font, contrasting colors, and screen reader formatting?

7. User-friendliness. This applies both your content and your style guide. You want to make it a helpful resource, not a cumbersome necessity. Make it skimmable and use bold and italics strategically.

And finally, to make an excellent style guide, make sure you:

8. Maintain and update it regularly. Over time, inconsistencies and gaps will emerge. This is normal. Routinely review and update your style guide to ensure it stays useful and relevant.

To help you create a style guide, see our handy template:
https://proofed.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Proofed-Style-Guide-Template.pdf?utm_campaign=30.4+Beyond+the+Margins+Newsletter&utm_content=26.4+Newsletter&utm_medium=email_action&utm_source=customer.io

Want help setting it up? Get in touch today.

Human QA has a measurable impact across every key performance indicator.

Structurally sound, clearly written content reduces bounce rate by giving readers a reason to stay. Consistent voice and genuinely useful information drive deeper engagement and time on a page. Persuasive framing and well-placed CTAs directly improve conversions. And SEO-aware editing (checking terminology, heading structure, internal linking, and on-page signals) strengthens how search engines interpret and rank your content.

Together, these improvements mean human QA doesn’t just protect content quality. It actively contributes to the commercial performance of every piece you publish.

When should you use a human editor versus an AI proofreading tool?

Use AI proofreading tools for:
• Internal documents
• Early-stage drafts
• Low-visibility content
• Quick first-pass grammar checks

Switch to human editing when:
• The content is public-facing, brand-defining, or revenue-driving
• The material contains technical or regulated terminology
• Tone and voice consistency matter
• Structural clarity and persuasive flow are critical

If you still don’t know when to switch, ask yourself if getting something wrong would damage your brand or cost you conversions. If either of those apply, a human editor is not optional.

Rush jobs don’t save time. They multiply mistakes and inflate costs, and they can trap your team in endless content revision cycles. True efficiency comes from well-designed workflows that can accommodate urgency without any sacrifices to the foundational elements that make content effective.

Read more: https://proofed.com/knowledge-hub/why-content-rush-jobs-create-more-work/

How to Type an En Dash and Em Dash on Windows and Mac Devices https://proofed.com/writing-tips/how-to-type-an-en-dash-and-em-dash-on-windows-and-mac-devices/

How to Type an En Dash and Em Dash on Windows and Mac Devices | Proofed's Writing Tips The en dash (–) and em dash (—) are useful punctuation marks, but you won’t find them on your keyboard. Here's how to quickly insert them.

Sources are important.

In today’s world of AI hallucinations, being able to check the facts for yourself is vital. That’s why when Proofed proofreads your paper, we check all your footnotes for sources and all your sources for footnotes to make sure the facts are right where they’re supposed to be.

AI proofreading isn’t enough for high-traffic blogs.

AI tools can’t evaluate tone, catch meaning errors, handle specialist terminology accurately, or assess structure.

Remember that AI tools actively work against voice consistency by nudging prose toward generic clarity. That’s why a human-in-the-loop is so important.

Read more: https://proofed.com/knowledge-hub/why-ai-proofreading-fails-and-what-to-use-instead.

How do you know if an editor truly understands you?

Unfortunately, the answer isn’t just about familiarity with your industry. A truly trustworthy editor demonstrates understanding through their behavior, not just their edits.

If an editor understands your brand, they don’t just avoid changing words; they understand why you chose certain words in the first place. This requires asking strategic questions before starting to work, such as:

-Who is the primary audience?
-What action should this content drive?
-How does this fit into your competitive positioning?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help to preserve the persuasive edge of your marketing copy and avoid diluting the power of your messaging. This is the essence of effective brand voice editing.

We get it. Those are your thoughts and your words, and you worked hard to get them down.

But the problem with self-editing is that you’re too close to those words. It’s hard to look at your own work and see what should be changed or cut to make the whole better.

That’s why professional editing and proofreading are so important—we provide an objective eye as well as experience with grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Because we also want your work to be the best it can be.