Grad students catching typos in faculty work?

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I'm a PhD student in a large department. Since workshops and seminars tend to focus on areas in which faculty have ongoing research, I often find myself reading draft articles or chapters written by my instructors.

I see lots of typos in these drafts, and I am tempted to point them out to the authors (privately, of course). But I don't know whether it's socially acceptable for PhD students to offer this kind of feedback to faculty. Since lots of you are faculty, I thought I'd ask: How would you feel if a PhD student sent you a marked-up copy of one of your drafts that identified a few typos? Relatedly: am I neglecting my professional duty by omitting this kind of feedback, if faculty have explicitly asked for feedback?

Several readers submitted replies. 

"Please do alert your professors of typos - they are annoying and easy to miss. So you could save them a real headache. People are generally not so touchy"

"I'm at the TT stage, and I'm extremely appreciative towards anyone who points out typos in my drafts. Not so much towards reviewers when they cite this as a reason for rejection though. To clarify, one's own typos are extremely to catch before submitting to journals. Better you than the submit button."

This seems right. I proofread my own papers and books dozens of times and somehow typos still find their way through. It sucks, and if a grad student helped me to avoid them, I'd be grateful!

Comments

[Michel]

Yup, this is fine. Go right ahead!

[David Thorstad]

I literally used to pay someone to proofread my work. Free proofreading is wonderful. Please mention typos.

[Daniel Greco]

Yeah pointing out typos is a favor. People will be grateful. I paid a grad student to proofread my book manuscript. He found lots of typos, and I was very grateful.

If somebody wrote me letting me know had found lots of typos in a paper draft I wrote, if anything I'd feel a bit sheepish about their having done free proofreading, and would look for a way to pay them ex post. I certainly wouldn't think they'd committed a faux pas.

[touchy]

It depends on the way you do it.

Even when I was a graduate student, some professors did it in a way I appreciate less than others. I did not appreciate it so much when it came across that the professor was not able to appreciate the content because of the typos, as all the comments were about the typos. Yes, in some cases, it can come across as disrespectful and discriminatory.

But there are also so many kind ways of doing it. You can, for example, send an email asking if they would like to see the typos you have caught. They might even hire you as their proofreader!