About
Richard and Ann
Hi. I’m Richard Treadgold, I’m married to Ann, we have five splendid grown-up children, and I’ve been writing one thing or another all my life.
I was trained in proofreading at the NZ Herald when they still used proofreaders. I love proofreading. It’s satisfying to polish and clarify the meaning, for removing errors makes everyone happy — readers, writers, publishers and bystanders.
In 1985 I started my first business writing user guides and manuals. For 15 years I wrote software manuals for some leading New Zealand companies including NZI Life, Southern Cross Medical Care Society, Air New Zealand, Kiwiplan, Right Hemisphere, Fletcher Challenge, Clear Communications, Goodman Fielder Watties and Stephen’s Pharmaceuticals (became Zeulig Pharmaceuticals). Later there were editing and writing assignments for Tool Magazine, Croxley Stationery and others.
As a proofreader, sometimes I’m looking for errors of spelling, punctuation and basic grammar. Other times I’m asked to clarify meaning, remove ambiguities and polish awkward phrases. But the topic is always purposeful and the author wants a precise expression of reality, so without exception the work is interesting. I’ve edited research reports, papers and dissertations for hundreds of university students.
I started to think about the lack of publicly-visible proofreaders. Proofreading is needed today more than ever, because knowledge of English and how to use it well has greatly declined. It’s scarcely taught in our schools, so students often enter university poorly versed in good writing. Those who care about language and want their message clearly expressed cannot find a proofreader to make up for a lack of writing skill.
It is my mission to make quality, affordable proofreading available to everyone.
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