How do I print them double-sided?

Double-sided, flip on the long edge. Every front sheet is followed by its own already-mirrored back sheet, so print them in the order they come and every answer lands on its own card.

Can I edit the cards?

Yes, and that is half the point. Once you own the deck, the "Buy & edit" button here opens all 30 cards in the free flash card maker on this site — reword a definition, delete the ones you do not teach, add your own, and print at anything from two to nine cards a page, rather than the fixed eight of the PDF.

Can I print a set for every student?

Yes. Personal and classroom licence: unlimited printing, every class you teach, every year you teach it. It does not cover reselling the file or passing it on to a colleague.

What if I find a card that is wrong?

Tell us and we fix it, and we publish what changed. We have withdrawn a whole deck from sale for being out of date rather than quietly patch it.

Do I need an account?

No. The file downloads straight away — no account, no email, no card details.

Printable flash cards

All 30 Proofreading & Editing Marks flashcards. Free.

The whole deck, not a sample — Proofreading & Editing Marks is 30 cards, which is no longer than the 30 we give away on every deck, so there is nothing left to charge for. 13 pages, US Letter, black and white. Grades 6–12.

Download all 30 cards — free Edit these cards

No account, no email, no card details.

13 pages, and the backs are already right

Every front sheet is followed by its own back sheet with the rows reversed. Print double-sided, flip on the long edge, and answer number 7 is behind question number 7. Print a deck you built yourself, flip on the short edge, and every answer lands on the wrong card — which nobody finds out until sixty cards have been cut apart.

30 cards — counted out of the file, not rounded up
Eight cards a sheet, with cut guides
US Letter PDF, black and white, photocopier-friendly
Print a set per student, every class, every year

30 cards. Proofreading marks are not a standardised set, so this deck sticks to one convention — the operational, typographical and function signs of the Chicago Manual list — rather than padding it with marks from other traditions.

Every card here is cited to two independent sources

Two different organisations — not a standards body and a website reprinting it — and a script refuses the card if the two disagree, so the check runs on every card rather than on the ones somebody remembered to look at. A second specialist then re-verified this deck from sources of their own, without reading our citations first. A further 5,420 cards across 30 other decks were read end to end by a subject specialist instead, and we say which is which on every deck rather than averaging the two into one flattering word.

What 30 printed cards do that a screen does not

A phone deck is one card at a time. A printed deck is a pile you can split: the ones you know, the ones you nearly know, and the ones you keep missing. That third pile is the entire study session, and it is the thing a scrolling app hides from you.

Print once, use all year. The licence covers a set per student, every class, every year.
No device, no login, no data. Works in a cover lesson, on a bus, or at a kitchen table. Grades 6–12, filed under english & reading.
Change what you disagree with. Every card loads into the free maker on this site. Reword it, drop it, add your own, reprint.

Here are all 30 cards

Check them against your own textbook before you spend anything.

A looped, curled symbol (the dele) struck through a letter or word: Delete it — take the marked text out.
Two arcs facing each other, one above and one below a gap: Close up — delete the space and run the characters together.
The delete loop with close-up arcs round it, inside a word: Delete and close up — remove the letters and leave no gap; used inside a word only.
The word 'stet' written in the margin beside marked-up text: Let it stand — ignore the correction; the original wording stays.
A hash sign, #, written in the margin: Insert a space at the mark.
'eq #' written in the margin: Equalise the spacing — make the spaces between the words, or between the lines, even.
A wedge or arrowhead (a caret) pointing up from the baseline: Insert here — add the word, letter or mark written above it or in the margin.
A pilcrow, the paragraph sign, marked at a point in the text: Begin a new paragraph here.
'no paragraph' or 'run in' written in the margin: Do not start a new paragraph — run the text on from the line before.
'tr' in the margin with an S-shaped loop drawn round two words: Transpose — swap the two marked words or letters.
'sp' in the margin beside a circled abbreviation or numeral: Spell it out — write the abbreviation or figure in full.
A left square bracket drawn in the margin beside a line: Move the line left.
A right square bracket drawn in the margin beside a line: Move the line right.
A right bracket then a left bracket, drawn round a line: Centre the line.
A double vertical rule drawn in the margin: Align vertically — line the figures or characters up in one column.
'fl' or 'fr' written in the margin: Set the line flush left, or flush right, against that margin.
Three lines drawn under a letter, with 'caps' in the margin: Capitalise it — set the marked letter or word in capitals.
Two straight lines drawn under a word, with 'sc' in the margin: Set it in small capitals.
One straight line drawn under a word, with 'ital' in the margin: Set it in italic type.
A wavy line drawn under a word, with 'bf' in the margin: Set it in boldface.
'rom' circled in the margin beside italic text: Set it in roman — upright type, not italic.
A slash struck through a capital letter, with 'lc' in the margin: Lowercase it — set the marked capital as a small letter.
'wf' circled in the margin beside a character: Wrong font — reset that character in the correct typeface.
An upside-down caret written above the line: Set what follows as a superscript.
A caret written below the line: Set what follows as a subscript.
A dot drawn inside a small ring: Insert a full stop (period) at that point.
How an inserted comma, colon or question mark is marked: In a caret or with a following stroke — not ringed: a ring means an instruction, not type to set.
A capital M with a line under it, written in the margin: Insert an em dash there.
A capital N with a line under it, written in the margin: Insert an en dash there.
Where a proofreader's mark goes: in the text, in the margin, or both?: Both — an in-text mark plus a margin mark. BS 5261 allows no words or abbreviations as margin marks.

Play it online insteadAll 30 cards, free, in any browser.Study Pack — $11.99/monthAll 78 decks and every printable.

Questions

How do I print them double-sided?: Double-sided, flip on the long edge. Every front sheet is followed by its own already-mirrored back sheet, so print them in the order they come and every answer lands on its own card.
Can I edit the cards?: Yes, and that is half the point. Once you own the deck, the "Buy & edit" button here opens all 30 cards in the free flash card maker on this site — reword a definition, delete the ones you do not teach, add your own, and print at anything from two to nine cards a page, rather than the fixed eight of the PDF.
Can I print a set for every student?: Yes. Personal and classroom licence: unlimited printing, every class you teach, every year you teach it. It does not cover reselling the file or passing it on to a colleague.
What if I find a card that is wrong?: Tell us and we fix it, and we publish what changed. We have withdrawn a whole deck from sale for being out of date rather than quietly patch it.
Do I need an account?: No. The file downloads straight away — no account, no email, no card details.