Getting the Editing Attitude & Proofreading Strategies

1. Getting the Editing Attitude & Proofreading Strategies

2. Five Principles 1. Editing is not writing Many believe that if you follow all mechanical rules, you’re writing well. That’s like believing if you’re never offsides, you must be a great football player.

3. 2. Editing is different from creating • Now we have to become obedient rule followers • Shift into different part of brain • If you don’t make the shift, you can’t edit. • Redefine yourself as a line editor • This must take place dead last.

4. 3. Editing is like cleaning windows • Show your reader what’s on the other side of the glass. • Poor writing is like a dirty window • You don’t want your viewer to be distracted by streaks and fingerprints—that is, run-ons, misspelled words, incorrect punctuation. • You want 100% of the reader’s attention on what you’re saying.

5. *TraireedigntHis, sentecne and yew’l see wut ii; meat. Every mechanical oddity is a tiny tug on the reader’s sleeve pulling her focus away from your content.

7. 4. Stripping to the skeleton makes mechanics easy(er) • Most write problematic sentences, not because we don’t know the rules, but because when the sentences get complex we can’t see how the rules apply.

8. The problem is simple busy-ness, and you fix it by simplifying the sentence until you can see what’s going on. Nobody would write: But lots of people do write: “It’s an ongoing problem for my husband, Andy and I.” *“It’s a problem for I”

9. To strip to the skeleton, toss out all the unnecessary parts of the sentence • *I’m not so knowledgeable about computers that when problems are presented to me that I instantly find solutions.

10. Example • Skeleton: “I’m not so knowledgeable that that that I find solutions.” • REWRITE: I’m not so knowledgeable about computers that when problems are presented to me I instantly find solutions.

11. 5. Frequently Mechanics can’t be explained. • A tall, handsome, unmarried stranger • A typical pushy American tourist

12. Proofreading • Proofreading is reading over the text to look for places where your fingers slipped and you typed natino instead of nation. It’s the very last thing before printing the final copy.

13. To get in the mood, begin by realizing 4 truths 1. Realize why proofreading matters • Typos destroy your reader’s concentration • A single typo can undo all your hard work. • How do you react when you read: “fist graders,” “shot stories” or “censoring textboots”?

14. "...in the middle of the road ejaculating

15. “Chi-tonw”

17. 2. Realize how proofreading problems are fixed. • Spelling problems are problems of knowledge and you fix them by learning. • Typos are finger slips and learned by looking

18. 3. Realize your word-processing program’s spell checker won’t save you. • Spell-checker programs make typo problems worse because they lull you into thinking they’ve fixed the problem. • Spell-checker can’t do anything about “fist graders,” “shot stories” or “censoring textboots”?

19. 4.Realize why proofreading is hard • It’s because all your life you’ve been practicing the art of not looking at the letters. • Experts estimate you’re actually seeing perhaps 25 % of a text. • To proofread well, you stop reading and start staring.

20. Nine Principles to guide you. 1. Proofread from a hard copy • Most people simply don’t see mistakes on a screen. 2. Assume there’s at least one typo. • If you don’t, you’ll never find any.

21. Nine Principles to guide you 3. Set aside a time for nothing but proofreading. • You can’t do it and anything else too, since it uses your brain in a unique way. 4. Ignore content • As soon as you start listening to what the text is saying, you’ll start seeing what you expect and not what’s there.

22. Nine Principles to guide you 5. Read backward • To prevent yourself from predicting 6. Go Slow, • Any attempt you hurry and you’ll start guessing and skimming

23. Nine Principles to guide you 7. Don’t just proofread individual words, • Proofread phrases and clauses. Otherwise, you miss goofs like these:

24. Nine Principles to guide you 8.Proofread the new text and everything surrounding it 9. Get Help, • It’s easy to get so close to your work that you just don’t see it anymore. I’ve proofread and proofread and proofread and, finally, thinking I’ve caught everything, shown it to my friend and….

25. References • Rawlins, Jack and Stephen Metzger. The Writer’s Way, Seventh Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2009.