Proofreaders’ Marks
Move your mouse over the proofreaders’ mark to see it used in context.
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Insert period |   |
Brackets | |||
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Insert comma |   |
Indent 1 em | |||
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Insert colon |   |
Indent 2 ems | |||
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Insert semicolon |   |
Paragraph | |||
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Insert question mark |   |
No paragraph | |||
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Insert exclamation mark |   |
Transpose—used in margin | |||
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Insert hyphen |   |
Transpose—used in text | |||
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Insert apostrophe |   |
Spell out | |||
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Insert quotation marks |   |
Italic—used in margin | |||
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Insert 1-en dash |   |
Italic—used in text | |||
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Insert 1-em dash |   |
Boldface—used in margin | |||
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Insert space |   |
Boldface—used in text | |||
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Insert ( ) points of space |   |
Small caps—used in margin | |||
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Insert slash |   |
Small caps—used in text | |||
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Superior |   |
Roman type | |||
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Inferior |   |
Caps—used in margin | |||
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Parentheses |   |
Caps—used in text | |||
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Caps & small caps—used in margin |   |
Align horizontally | |||
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Caps & small caps—used in text |   |
Center horizontally | |||
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Lowercase—used in margin |   |
Center vertically | |||
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Used in text to show deletion or substitution |   |
Equalize space—used in margin | |||
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Delete |   |
Equalize space—used in text | |||
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Delete and close up |   |
Let it stand—used in text | |||
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Wrong font |   |
Let it stand—used in margin | |||
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Close up |   |
Letter(s) not clear | |||
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Move right |   |
Carry over to the next line | |||
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Move left |   |
Carry back to preceding line | |||
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Move up |   |
Something omitted—see copy | |||
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Move down |   |
Question to author to delete | |||
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Align vertically |   |
Caret—general indicator used to mark position of error |
Sample text taken from Mark My Words and The Copyeditor’s Guide to Substance & Style, available from EEI Press.
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