=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= EDline Vol. 6, no. 4 (28 January 2001) Editorial mailing list (digest version) Published by the Electric Editors =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Contents: Q & A [2mx] Units of measurement [2my] Websites as reference entries [2mz] Name of the second decade? [2na] Pro form/forma FYI [3fy] NLA Guidelines for Web Creators Business matters [4dw] Checklists [5] Bookmarks [6] Just for fun [7] Miscellaneous Virtual Book Group [8] Administration =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ---[2] Q&A ----------------------------------------------------- ** [2mx] Units of measurement Date: Tues, 16 Jan 2001 From: Michelle Zacharias, michelle@yaskawa.co.jp I asked: > I work for a robotics company in Japan which does not have > style guides for their Japanese or English manuals. > > They farm out some of the translation work to another company > which prefers that symbols such as percent be repeated but not > units of measurement. > > eg. 15% to 30% 3 to 5 mm > > But yea ole Chicago Style Guide that everyone suggests > referring suggests that symbols and units of measurement be > repeated. > > eg. 15% to 30% 3 mm to 5 mm David Penfold then wrote: > I think it does make sense to repeat those symbols that are > closed up (% and the degree sign, for example) and not those > that are separated by a space. However, you can get round the > problem by using an en dash (closed up) to indicate the range > in either case and then it looks really odd if you repeat the > unit. This also takes up less space. > ... > Finally, repeating units is fine when there is just, for > example, mm, but when one gets long compound units, as occur in > some of the work I do, then repeating them can look very odd. > The other problem that can arise in such cases is that there > can be line-break/interword spacing problems if you do not want > to break the line in the middle of a unit. Sounds interesting, but the company has a strong policy against using en-dashes to indicate ranges. They prefer "to". Someone told them that in the past and so now that rule and many others are set in concrete. We don't usually deal with long compund units in the manuals, so I think it would be okay to repeat it. I can understand how repetition would be awkward and space-consuming in your situation. But is interesting how such a seemingly simple thing can become so complicated. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2my] Websites as reference entries Date: Tues, 23 Jan 2001 From: Judyth Mermelstein, espresso@e-scape.net Sue Hughes wrote: > More and more frequently, I am encountering websites cited > along with ordinary reference entries in typescripts. The > problem is, of course, that such sites frequently change, so > that material cited may subsequently be removed from the site. > ... > Thus far I have been allowing all such citations but have begun > to ask authors if they could supply the date at which they > accessed the information. ... Can anything further be required? I would most certainly consider the date accessed as part of the bibliographic entry. In theory, once the article has been moved or removed, one could still request a copy from the site's owner or the author of the article but the date could help the reader decide whether it is worth trying the original URL or whether it would make more sense to search for the title or author through search engines. Ian Kingston wrote: > An additional question is how thorough an editor should be in > checking that URLs are correct. That's a very good question indeed. Nit-picker that I am, I would say one should exercise the same degree of care one uses for print sources, ideally checking every single one. In the real world, I haven't had a client willing to pay for bibliography- checking in years; it's been two years since I had one who would let me look up entries that were obviously so incomplete as to be nearly useless. A partial solution to URL-checking is available, though. There are programs which check whether the links on a Web site are valid (i.e., lead to an existing site) and running one on a bibliography would at least enable one to indicate which links no longer work. That's not likely to satisfy me but it would save the readers some frustration over broken links. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2mz] Name of the second decade? Date: Tues, 23 Jan 2001 From: Anna Beth McCormack, mccormack@goulburn.net.au Iain Brown wrote: > We have just left the "Nineties" (and are now probably in the > "Naughties"), but what do we call the decade 1910-1919 -- or > for that matter, 2010-2019? The Sydney Morning Herald seems to be calling the first decade the 'noughties'. Maybe the second decade, with the same cuddlesome but gratuitous suffix, will be the 'tennies' or the 'teenies'---though 'teenies' has the wrong connotations to refer to the second decade of the 20th century. ---------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 From: Elizabeth Murphy, emmurphy@ozemail.com.au As with children just growing up, wouldn't that be the "Teens"? +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2na] Pro form/forma Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 From: Jane Kerr, bywater@ntlworld.com I'm working on a management title, in which the author refers to "pro form analysis sheets". As I've always seen the term as "pro forma" in the past, I assume that "form" is a typo, but I'm just wondering if anyone else has ever come across "prof form". ---------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 From: David Ibbetson, ibbetson@idirect.com In this context it means "Done or produced as a matter of form; designating a model or standard document or form". -- Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases ---[3] FYI ----------------------------------------------------- ** [3fy] NLA Guidelines for Web Creators Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 From: Jennifer Hodgeman, jhodgeman@nla.gov.au The National Library of Australia has just produced a set of guidelines to assist the creators and publishers of web resources called "Safeguarding Australia's web resources: guidelines for creators and publishers" < http://www.nla.gov.au/guidelines/2000/webresources.html > The guidelines provide advice on creating, describing, naming and managing web resources to facilitate their ongoing use. The practices that are recommended will make it easier to carry out future preservation actions, which may be necessary in the longer term to maintain continued access to important resources. A printed version of the guidelines is also available and may be obtained by contacting the Electronic Unit, National Library of Australia by email at elecunit@nla.gov.au or by phone at (+61) (0)2 6262 1140. ---[4] Business matters --------------------------------------- ** [4dw] Checklists Date: Thurs, 25 Jan 2001 From: Anne Waddingham, Waddingham@compuserve.com Does a client send you a checklist as part of the brief when you do a copyediting or proofreading job? I mean a list of tasks that the in-house person ticks (or not) to indicate which you should perform. I'm told that Routledge use (used?) a checklist like this for proofreaders. I would love to get some examples that I can use on my Publishing Training Centre course 'Managing Editorial Freelances'. Send them by mail, fax or email to the address below, preferably by Tues 30th if poss, although any received after that date would be most welcome. Anne Waddingham Editorial Services 13 Sherenden Park Golden Green Tonbridge, UK TN11 0LQ Fax +44 1732 850049 waddingham@compuserve.com ---[5] Bookmarks ---------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 From: Germaine Warkentin, g.warkentin@utoronto.ca Current value of old money < http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/current/howmuch.html > As the site says, 'A frequent question is "how much would a specified amount of money at a certain period of time be worth today?"' The sources listed attempt to answer this question. ---[6] Just for fun -------------------------------------------- Oxymorons, no. 19 Passive aggression +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ "I'm glad we clarified that", no. 8 On Boot's Children's Cough Medicine: "Do not drive a car or operate machinery after taking this medication". (We could do a lot to reduce the rate of construction accidents if we could just get those five-year-olds with head colds off those forklift trucks!) ---[7] Miscellaneous ------------------------------------------ Virtual Book Group Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 From: Christine Headley, chps@globalnet.co.uk ** If you wish to reply to this message, please make sure you ** respond to me rather than to the list. It is bound to be Off ** Topic! This is an invitation to all subscribers to all the e-mail discussion groups that I subscribe to. If you would like to join a group of readers to discuss a book a month, please contact chps@globalnet.co.uk. Membership is not going to be widely publicised, though wider personal contact is welcome; the web page (when I set it up) at www.chps.co.uk/VBG will not contain metatags. The mechanical process is being dealt with by ListBot. The first book - discussion to start on 1 March (assuming I've read it by then!) - is *[Captain] Corelli's Mandolin* by Louis de Bernieres. I believe it is available in paperback on both sides of the Atlantic; if anyone can suggest a good Australian website to check for books' availability, please let me know. The April book is likely to be *The Vintner's Luck* by Elizabeth Knox. Members will be invited to suggest future choices and vote thereon. Best wishes Christine Christine Headley Copyeditor and indexer Stroud, Glos, UK chps@globalnet.co.uk ---[8] Administration ------------------------------------------ EDline provides the opportunity for an online discussion of matters editorial and editorial business. To post to the mailing list via ListBot, use the following address: ee_edline@listbot.com For digest subscribers, please post your EDline messages to: bywater@zetnet.co.uk Topics might include areas such as Grammar, Spelling, American English or Punctuation. Messages should be pertinent to the basic premise of the list; they may be withheld, or redirected if more pertinent to one of the other mailing lists. The spelling and grammar of messages will *not* be corrected, but some editing of length may be undertaken. The sections of the EDline digest are as follows: [2] Q & A -- questions and answers [3] FYI -- items of general interest [4] Business matters -- items of a business nature [5] Bookmarks -- useful Web pages [6] Just for fun -- time for letting hair down! [7] Miscellaneous -- odds and sods * Administration All messages of a subscription or administrative nature should be directed to Iain Brown, at: iain.brown@ucl.ac.uk with "EDline ADMIN" in the subject line. * To subscribe to the automated version of EDline Send a blank email to: ee_edline-subscribe@listbot.com If you would prefer to read EDline as a weekly digest, send an e-mail to ElectricEds@bigfoot.com with "Subscribe [EDline digest]" as the subject line. * Homepage and back issues: Visit the Electric Editors at: < http://www.electriceditors.net/ > Archives of the EDline automated discussions can be found at: < http://ee_edline.listbot.com/ > --------- ** The views expressed in this mailing list are strictly those of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the moderators or of the Electric Editors. ** Articles (c) 2001, by individual contributors Design (c) 1996, 1997, 2000 Iain Brown Compilation (c) 2001, Iain Brown / The Electric Editors =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= END OF EDline 6.4 Next digest issue: 4 February 2001 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=