Job Discussion Forums

[Glenski]

[rusmeister]

[Henry_Cowell]

[Stephen Jones]

[Stephen Jones]

[Henry_Cowell]

Steps in editing:

1. developmental editing
Ensuring that early draft of text is appropriate to its audience and stated goals. Providing advice and suggestions for topic coherence, organization, tone, and level. Fixing structural and organizational problems. Adding and/or deleting text, examples, exercises, and illustrations as necessary.

2. copyediting
In the author's original manuscript, marking and correcting errors in grammar, usage, diction, logic, capitalization, hyphenation, punctuation, treatment of numbers and numerals, use of fonts, abbreviations and acronyms, and so on. Ensuring consistency throughout entire manuscript by making decisions about treatment of words, terminology, capitalization, numbers, punctuation, and so on through creation of a stylesheet.

3. proofreading
Checking the typeset text (the proof) against the copyedited manuscript and stylesheet to ensure that all authorized changes have been made correctly, that no new errors have been introduced, that formatting has been preserved, and/or that file conversion from electronic format has created no new errors. Correcting any significant errors that were not corrected in copyediting. Fixing alignment, pagination, line and paragraph breaks, incorrect fonts, and other formatting and typographical issues. (Proofreading is not done by the original author unless the publisher is very, very cheap.)

[Ariadne]

Stephen..

I think I will continue to use 'bad grammar' to describe things that you would identify as 'inappropriate register'. For example, my students have a hard time using the simple past. Although 'bad grammar' may not be precise, the students have some idea what I'm talking about, and it corresponds with how their textbooks refer to 'grammar'.


Henry..

As with the word grammar, I often use the word proofreading imprecisely. 'Read and correct' is what I mean when I ask someone to 'proofread' something for me or when I 'proofread' work for someone else. I also call all facial tissues Kleenex.

.

[dmb]

[SueH]

[Stephen Jones]

[zorro (3)]

Which teachers are saying that spelling and grammar are not important for teaching English?

[globalnomad2]

Henry...my original use of "proofread" in this thread was in a generic sense. Here's the Dictionary.com definition:

proof�read /ˈprufˌrid/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[proof-reed] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation verb, -read /-ˌrɛd/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[-red] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation, -read�ing.
�verb (used with object) 1. to read (printers' proofs, copy, etc.) in order to detect and mark errors to be corrected.
�verb (used without object) 2. to read printers' proofs, copy, etc., to detect and mark errors, esp. as an employee of a typesetting firm, newspaper office, or publishing house.

And here is Merriam-Webster's:

proofread
One entry found for proofread.


Main Entry: proof�read
Pronunciation: 'pr�f-"rEd
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): proof�read /-"red/; -read�ing
Etymology: back-formation from proofreader
: to read and mark corrections in (as a proof )



You mean you've never told EFL writing students to proofread their essays? Give me a break.

[furiousmilksheikali]

I'm guessing that the original etymology of the word comes from the original meaning of the word "proof" being "to test whether something is correct" rather than its common modern usage of "to demonstrate that something is correct".

The expression "the exception that proves the rule" although sounding contradictory is due to the fact that proof meant "test" at some stage. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating" is another example and in that context the word "proofreading" would also make sense. in which case it doesn't seem unreasonable for laymen to talk of an author proofreading his own work.

[Henry_Cowell]

[thrifty]

Hurrah! He is back.