Why Proofreading?

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. When I was in my teens, once I’d grown too ‘big boned’ (that’s what my mum called it; bless her!) to be a prima ballerina, too hesitant a player to become a concert pianist (well, ok, I may have stumbled through the first five graded exams of the Royal School of Music with underwhelming marks, more like), and too squeamish to become a nurse, I wanted to be a journalist. I loved writing stories when I was at school, and recently discovered some of my primary school story books, complete with illustrations of weeping princesses and dashing princes in colourful and elaborate castles, which my dear mum had kept for nearly 50 years.

I did well at O level, getting As in English literature and English language, and started A level English Literature full of enthusiasm, once I’d been persuaded to go into the sixth form and not 'leave school to find paid work'. (Being the first in my family to go to university had started to look like a distinct possibility and my dad, a great believer in the transformative power of getting the good education denied to him was not going to let this opportunity pass without a serious fight.)

My very first A level English lesson started with the teacher – let’s call him Mr Davis – looking around the room at the motley crew assembled before him, and stating, in the dismissive way that became characteristic of our classes with him over the next two years, “Hmph, there’s no A material in here”. Despite a distinct lack of confidence and low self-esteem at the time, I took umbrance at this sleight, and decided there and then that an A was what I was going to aim for, notwithstanding the fact that I hadn't really ‘got’ A Passage to India which we’d had to read over the summer. Mr Davis turned out to be an inspirational if volatile teacher, and a second reading of Forster’s masterpiece and some observations from Mr Davis soon had me wallowing in books, writing, literature and subtext. Despite a hiccough with my German A level and the consequent need for me to return to school to re-sit and defer university for a year, I eventually made it to the University of Sheffield to study English Literature at degree level.

That’s when my confidence started to waiver. A working class girl from a provincial town with six months in London prior to Sheffield my only worldly experience, I pitched up at a Russell Group university to be surrounded by privately educated, super confident 18 year olds. I may have appeared ‘edgy’ to my new friend Sally, who remembered me from the open day in my red and black dogtooth check jumble sale coat as someone who had dared to ask a question, but inside I was a quivering wreck. My determination to work on the award-winning university student magazine, in order to hone my writing credentials, waned in direct proportion to my increasing conviction that I was surrounded with people cleverer, cooler, more attractive and more articulate than me. After three years, and much to my surprise, I graduated with an upper second class honours degree and a renewed but slightly downward adjusted ambition to work in the public sector. (Ironically, that friend from the open day went on to work at the Guardian, where she remains as education correspondent!)

Fast forward 32 years through a career, indeed within the public and quasi public sector, and here I am, looking to fulfil the ambition of my teens and try my hand at writing. Oh, I’ve written over the years, to be sure. Letters, emails, reports, web text, Sharepoint information. You name it, I’ve had a go at it, within the constraints of a career in higher education administration and management. My various tomes were (and are) always met with praise; people like the way I put words together, and writing comes easily to me. (Put some step ladders before me and you'll get a completely different response!) But writing fiction, which is what I’ve always longed to do, requires a narrative, and a coherent narrative is what I’m still seeking. I am a writer in search of a story. I wrote a comic blog the other day about being a distracted writer, always at the mercy of other ‘more pressing’ jobs or and the modern urgency of social media. Those things are true. But I’m also a writer in need of an imagination; words trip through my finger tips onto the keyboard and flicker onto the screen, but a story will not come to mind.

So, to proofreading. Working with other people’s words; helping budding writers and learners to express themselves as well as they can, in the knowledge that not everyone is comfortable with words, appealed to me as a logical step once I’d made the monumental decision to leave higher education and pursue ‘other interests’. We all have different talents. Some people may be great academics with logical, scientific brains, but little idea how to convey their expertise in an accessible, non-technical way. Other people may be fantastically creative, brimming with ideas and thoughts but for whom grammar was a bore at school and who therefore aren’t sure about all those ‘rules’ for apostrophes and commas and those semi colon things! Over the years in full-time work, I’ve nurtured and developed staff I’ve managed and encouraged their skills in writing and imbued them with the confidence to undertake their own correspondence and report writing with minimal input from me. I’m no longer that nervous, under confident young girl from the provinces, but a confident and capable adult and it’s take me 32 years to get to this point and to admit to myself what I'm good at. I want to help others who may feel like I felt all those years ago. Writing is such a wonderful form of self-expression. I want to explore my own writing now I have more time, but I would also like to work with others to do the same.

That’s why I’ve set up Tracey Word Smith Proofreading Service, although the frustration of starting a new business is having to spend time attracting business rather than doing the thing you enjoy the most! But I tidied up my desk and set up my study with great views of the street so I can watch all the comings and goings! With the fan heater blowing hot air underneath the desk, I'm good to go!

In the process of setting up this service, and researching the field and setting up my website and related social media outlets and starting my various blogs on grammar and guide dogs, I have learned so much. I look forward to continuing on this journey and to helping others with their journeys to self expression, whether it's being pursued for pleasure or profit.

Please contact me if you think I can help you! I hope this process will also unlock something in me, and I’ll continue to write and may even get inspired to start drafting that novel I know is in there!

Whether you’re doing an assignment for assessment, a journal article, a research paper, a novel or a blog for social media, happy writing!