Portfolio

A selection of projects to give you insight into how I work

“Working with Lara is one of the best experiences I had on Upwork. She is super responsible, communicative, and is able to finish great detailed work on time! She would go out of her way to research our website and really understand the content she’s supposed to proofread. Looking forward to working with her again!” – Hanna Yao

Yami

Project: App User Agreement Proofreading

Yami is America’s largest online retailer for authentic Asian groceries and goods. Yami strives to provide quality products and a user-friendly experience.

Challenge

To meet the needs of their ever-growing English-only customer base, Yami updated the English copy for their app’s referral program. The product team wanted me to ensure the Chinese-to-English translation was fluent and error-free, and they were on a tight deadline to publish the update.

Solution

I proofread the copy, considering brand voice and style, and paid extra attention to the word use in the user terms. To ensure I understood what the user terms should say, I referenced the legal documentation on their website.

Result

My annotations helped Yami clarify several items in the agreement, and I finished the job a day ahead of the deadline.

Distributed Proofreaders

Project: Volunteer Book Proofreading

Distributed Proofreaders’ (DP) mission is preserving out-of-print books for future generations to enjoy. Distributed Proofreaders converts public domain books into e-books for the Project Gutenberg archive, the world’s oldest digital library.

Challenge

Proofreading each digitized page required careful review, as the copy must remain verbatim. Optical conversion software can swap similar characters around and mistake blemishes on a page for punctuation marks.

Solution

I compared the digitized copy to the scanned original, line by line, to catch and correct errors the software made. Common errors include a missing comma, a single word broken over two lines, an em-dash instead of a long dash, or even an extra blank page.

I also formatted paragraph breaks and image captions according to DP style guidelines. During my time volunteering, I proofread portions of 10 different books, ranging from school education to the history of coffee.

“I highly recommend Lara Hawkins as a first-class proofreader. The dissertation was expertly proofread, corrected, polished, and ready for submission at the promised time. She produces exceptionally professional and excellent work in a timely manner.”

ThD Dissertation

Project: ESL Academic Proofreading

More job opportunities and better pay — that’s what a doctorate in theology would afford my client. As a nonnative English speaker, my client had the challenge of writing his dissertation in English and with dyslexia. After many months of careful work, he came to me with his printed manuscript.

Challenge

The academic content contained complex sentences, multi-paragraph arguments, and many unfamiliar theological terms and references.

Reading the 300-page theological treatise would require focus and attention to ensure the word use (both English-wise and theology-wise), spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure were ready for review by the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) Department of Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology.

Solution

I checked for fluency and sense first, then technical elements like sentence structure, word use and punctuation. I used my research skills to look up the spelling and usage of unfamiliar theological terms.

My familiarity with Spanish helped me catch the occasional Spanish word in the text (such as “o” instead of “or”).

Considering my client’s dyslexia and English fluency, I took care to annotate clearly and explain corrections where necessary.

Result

I completed the project within a week. That same month, Unisa awarded my client his doctorate in Biblical Studies, and he was able to get the position he wanted.