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What Do Prooofreaders Do?What Do Prooofreaders Do?What Do Prooofreaders Do?What Do Prooofreaders Do?
““The Essential Qualities of a Good The Essential Qualities of a Good Proofreader Are to Love Reading and Proofreader Are to Love Reading and Pointing out the Mistakes of Others.” Pointing out the Mistakes of Others.”
Danny Marcus © 2003
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The Editorial ProcessWriter puts words on
paper
Text is edited
Text is designed
Text is set into type Text is proofread
Corrected text is sent to printer
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Proofreaders Fulfill the Function of Editorial Quality Control
• Proofreaders check the work of the typesetter
• Proofreaders check the work of the copy editor
• Proofreaders check the work of the designer
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Some Proofreading Is Specialized
• Financial
• Foreign languages– Foreign alphabets
• Math and other technical material
• Legal
– Court Reporters
• Music
• Braille
• Maps
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• Check the words and everything about them
• Check consistency• Check overall appearance
– This is not a check of design specifications
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Check the Words and Everything About Them
• 100% responsibility for• Spelling
– Consistency of spelling– Incorrect spelling
• Missing, or wrong, or extra letters, or letters in the wrong order
• All the correct letters but something else is wrong
• Hyphenation
• Less than 100% responsibility for– Grammar– Punctuation– Word usage– Interpretability
• Less responsibility than
above for – Factual correctness
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• of Spel1ing • of Punctuation• Of Format• of Style• of Layout• of Factual statements
l
lc
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Check Overall Appearance
• Text shouldn’t run into artwork
• Text shouldn’t run into the next column or off the page
• Too short a line in the middle of a paragraph
• Differently sized text in an odd place
• Uneven spacing between words
• Lowercase letter L in place of number 1
• “Dumb” quotes in place of “smart” quotes
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Books and Work Tools• Dictionary
– Specialized– Foreign language– Speller/divider
• Usage guides– Prescriptivist– Descriptivist
• Style guides• Reference books
– Almanac• Atlas
– Grammar
• Erasable pencil– Carmine Red is best
color
• Big block eraser• Self-sticking notes• Straightedge• Calculator
– Proofread math
• Magnifier• Type scale
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Sample Proofreading Marks
• Typographic symbols • Punctuation symbols
delete
insert
Close up
Insert period
Insert comma
Insert apostrophe
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Danny Marcus
Print and electronic formatsTeacher of Proofreading
62 Washington Street, Suite 2Marblehead, Mass. 01945-3553
781-631-3886/ [email protected]
Copy Editor Proofreader
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Danny Marcus Word Worker 781-631-3886
The End