THE BRIEF
Our annual donor letter goes to the printer Friday. It's 1,450 words. Please proofread for typos, grammar and consistency only. Don't rewrite it; the board already approved the wording.
Scenario: Development director at a food bank
Package: Proofread up to 2,000 words · $20 · 60 min
Cleaned letter is attached, tracked changes on. 23 fixes, none to the approved wording. Change list below.
CHANGES
- 9 typos (including "recieve" twice and "pantrys").
- 5 punctuation fixes: two missing commas in addresses, three doubled spaces.
- 4 number fixes: "1.2 million" vs "1,200,000" vs "1.2M." Made all three "1.2 million," as in your first paragraph.
- 3 name fixes: "St. Mark's" and "Saint Mark's" both appeared. Used "St. Mark's," as on their own website.
- 2 date fixes: "October 5th" became "October 5" to match the other dates.
FLAGGED, NOT CHANGED
These need someone who knows the facts:
- Paragraph 2 says "4,200 families." Paragraph 6 says "more than 4,000 families." Both may be right. Worth checking that they're meant to differ.
- "Since 1987" in the opening. Your website says "since 1986."
- The signature reads "Executive Director." Linda's title on your letterhead is "President and CEO."
STYLE CHOICES I FOLLOWED
- Serial comma: you use it, so I kept it everywhere.
- "Food bank" lowercase except in your full name.
- Numbers: words for one through nine, digits for 10 and up. You did this 31 of 34 times. I fixed the other 3.
WORD COUNT
1,450 before, 1,448 after (two doubled words removed: "the the" and "to to").
SUMMARY
23 fixes to typos, punctuation, numbers, names and dates.
3 facts flagged for you to check before Friday.
No wording changes.
— Margo
