Which online proofreading services offer the quickest turnaround time?

Your best strategy is to engage with a specific human rather than a company or AI service. There's no substitute for a solid working relationship. If you've got someone you can text or email and say, "Hey, I need this proofread in the next couple of hours," and they know you pay promptly and treat them with respect, you're more likely to get your proofreading done correctly and on time.

You have to be upfront about your deadline. I suggest removing a couple of days to give yourself some time to sort out whatever issues might arise.

To ensure edited and proofread work is timeously returned, some clients give advance notice of when they will be sending work. That helps the editor to schedule and deliver back on time; it also ensures that authors get their work back in good time for submission deadlines. Even so, some send work with requests for editing to be returned within a day or two. If there is already a good editor-author relationship, this is usually accommodate. If the work is of manageable length, i.e., if the request is not unreasonable, as an editor who has often worked against tight deadlines, I like to be supportive and flexible. Still, to ensure good quality, last minute requests that put the editor under pressure should not be the author's default mode.

If you've been told that the deadline is impossible to beat, you can try splitting the document into parts and giving them to different agencies. Do this only during emergencies, and strictly for proofreading, not editing.

Proofreading can be classified into: 1. Basic proofreading, which involves checking for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. It ensures that your writing is clear and free from basic mistakes. 2. Intermediate proofreading, in addition to basic proofreading, involves checking for consistency in style, formatting, and terminology usage. 3. Advanced proofreading involves restructuring sentences or paragraphs for better readability, and checking for coherence in arguments or ideas.

Although AI-tools are available to support writing and editing there is still a great deal that needs attention from a knowledgeable human. For example, some voice-to-text programs 'mishear' words, or choose the incorrect version of a set of synonyms. Also, there are issues of readability and style that a "real" reader can better pick up and put right. Some authors become unnecessarily repetitive, restating questions or motivations; others articulate goals they purport to address, while a closer look shows multiple different goals with no clear ranking, ordering or focus. An editor can alert authors to such difficulties or inconsistencies, add value, and improve quality of arguments, in ways that AI tools can rarely do.

You can always expect additional cost for proofreading projects that have to be rushed. This is because they demand extra attention and resources from the proofreader, who may need to rearrange their schedule or work overtime to meet the tight deadline.

If there's no interface involved, you can drop mini progress reports at the end of each day for long term projects. This keeps the customer assured that their project is being worked on.

It is fair to ask editors/proofreaders to give examples of their work, and to follow up references from previous clients. This is important because some proofreaders specialise in areas which may better fit one kind of text than another.