EXERCISES IN COPY READING

Edit the news sentences using your own symbols. Make sure to check the punctuation, sentence structure, subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, and other rules.

COPYREADING AND HEADLINE WRITING EXERCISES

Exercise I. Copyreading Signs and Symbols

Direction: Illustrate through signs and symbols the following copy fixers actions/remarks.

Copy fixers Actions/Remarks

To Be Edited

1. Delete; take out

Always mark all proofse

2. Insert space

Always markproofs properly.

3. Insert letter(s) or word(s)

Always mak profs properly.

4. Transpose letters or words

Always proofs makr properly.

5. Close up; no space

Always m ark proofs prop erly.

6. Align with left margin

Always mark proof

7. Align with right margin

Always mark proof

8. Center

Mark Proofs

9. Start new paragraph

Always mark proofs properly.

10. Do not start new paragraph

Always mark proofs.

Mark them properly.

11. Do not start new line

Always mark proofs

properly.

12. Do not make correction;

Always mark proofs properly.

Let stand as written

13. This is wrong; see copy

Always mark proof

14. This is questionable;

Never mark proofs properly

Check or query author

15. Insert comma

Proofs if properly marked

16. Insert period

Always mark proof properly

17. Insert apostrophe

The proofs in the proof mark.

18. Insert quotation marks

He said, Mark proofs properly.

19. Insert hyphen

The writer editor marks proofs.

20. Insert dash

Always not sometimes marks.

21. Spell out

Proofing is a no. 1 priority.

22. Align

Alw ys mark oofs properly.

a pr

Exercise II. Editing a CopyDirection: Edit the feature article using the copyreaders editing marks.

During the 1990s, a nine year old girl in Ruston Louisiana won a trophy, 5000 dollars, and a trip to the United States Capital Bl;dg.

Thomas Shriver Junior an employee of the Roess Company in Fairbanks Alaska has a Ph.D. in economics and will be here Mon, Tues., & Wed.

Prof. Rebecca Malone of Forty-two Fifth Avenue works in the History Department and shares an office in Rm. 247 of the Humanities Bldg.

Afterwards, 7 persons, all United States citizens, testified that the US navy payed the Westinghouse Corporation $14,200,000 dollars.

The Washington Post reported Tue. That the suspect is White, in her 30s, about 5 ft., 2 inches tall, and weighs about one hundred pds.

Only one media reported that the President of the National Rifle Assn. met with sixteen members of the US Congress on August 23, 2008.

During the 1960s, a committee of the United States Congress estimated that the program would cost $7 to $8.4 billion dollars.

The boy, age 7, had 42 cents and said his mother, the Mayor, will attend the P.T.A meeting Nov. 28 if the temperature remains above 0.

It was an unusual phenomena. During the twentieth century, the odds were 9 to 1 that 80 % of the Mayors would be reelected to a 2nd term.

Moving backwards, the 14 yr old babysitter in martin Tn. Said goodbye, then picked up the bible and ran towards her home on Roe St.

When Obstacles Get You Down

Do obstacles get you down when trying to get something doone? Consider the following

After Fred Astaires first screen test, a 1933 memo from the mgm testing director said: Cant act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little. Astaire kept that memo over the fire place in his Beverly Hills home

An expert said of famous football coach VinceLombardi: He possesses minimal football knowledge. Lacks motivashun.

Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, was advised by her family to find work as a Servant or seamstress.

Beethoven handled the voilin awkwardly and prefered playing his own personal compositions instead of improving his technique.

His teacher called him utterly hopeless as a composer. The teacher of famous opera singer Enrico Caruso said Caruso had no voice at all and could not sing?

Walt Disney was fired by a news paper for lacking ideas. He also goed backrupt several times before he build Disneyland.

Eighteen publishers turned down Richard Bachs 10000 word story about a soaring seagull before Macmillan finally published it in 1970. By 1975, Jonathan Livingston Seagull had sold more than 7 million copies in the U.S. alone.