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  EDline Vol. 8, no. 56   (19 May 2003)

  Editorial mailing list (digest version)
  Published by the Electric Editors
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  Contents:

         Business matters
  [4hx]  Proof-reading symbols
            [Offshoot of [4hw] Copyediting for book publishers]

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---[4]-- Business matters ---------------------------------------

         Date: Sun, 11 May 2003
         From: Sarah Margetts, sarahmargetts@ntlworld.com

Carol Cleary wrote:

> Is the use of proofreading symbols obsolete or still very much
> in practice, despite the onset of electronic editing?

Carol's question about proof-reading symbols has got me thinking.

I work as a freelance editor now and I use the proper
proof-reading symbols if a client prefers it. But before that I
did copy-typing (along with other work).

As a copy-typist, I found the proof-reading symbols unhelpful.
They slowed me down by forcing me to look backwards and forwards
between the copy and the margin. Does anyone know why some
clients ask for them? (Is it that some copy-typists prefer them?
Or is that the copy-typists have no say over how the editing is
done?)


         ----------------------
         Date: Sun, 11 May 2003
         From: Judy Stein, jstein@panix.com

I assume you're referring to inputting from marked-up hardcopy,
right? There's no reason to use marginal proofreading symbols if
someone is going to be inputting the copy word by word.

Marginal proofreading symbols are useful for making corrections
to something that's already been input, because the person
inputting the corrections shouldn't have to go through the
printout word-by-word to find the occasional correction. If the
corrections are in the margin, the person can see them easily and
just move from one to the next without paying attention to the
text in between.

Also, typically typeset printout is single-spaced, sometimes in
smallish type, and it's hard to mark corrections clearly. There's
no room between the lines to write in a word that needs to be
inserted, so instead you mark a caret in the text where the word
goes, and then write the word itself in the margin.

But if you're marking up double-spaced typed copy, there should
be room between the lines to make the necessary marks. (You might
want to clarify something in the margin from time to time, but
most of your marks can be made directly in the copy.) That way,
as you say, it's much easier for the person doing the inputting.

*Queries* should always be in the margins, however.

The only reason I can think of that you'd be asked to use
marginal proofreading symbols is if the client already has what
you're editing in electronic form and will only need to make your
changes in the file. If the whole thing is going to be input from
scratch, as much as possible of your changes should be marked
right in the text, not in the margins.


         ----------------------
         Date: Mon, 12 May 2003
         From: Christopher Pipe, watermark@britishlibrary.net

Judy Stein has answered this clearly; I would just wish to add
that there are cases when a clean copy of the MS is to be scanned
for OCR, and the editor's alterations made to the resulting file.
Therefore, even the copy has not yet been entered by the
typesetters, editing will most helpfully be done using
proofreading conventions since the typesetters will just be
making those changes to the OCR file.


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